62 FLETCHER, The Black BcU-Mant'ic. TisfS" 



resembled a chicken's lej^. vSo I went aloii<^ to insitect his lar- 

 der. There I found ])art of the bij^j^est ( feathered; chicken 

 most inijeniously fixed by the outstretched winj^^s tucked in and 

 under tlie splintered ends of the log. The body (jf the chicken 

 was being slowly i)ulled to pieces in such a position that it gave 

 the bird extra power in his tugging. I set my camera and waited 

 a long time, hoping to photo, the old fellow tuggmg, but though 

 he perched on the log, he would not come in the range of the 

 lens. As it was getting late I had to leave, but took a shot of 

 the fixed chicken. This, however, was not sharp enough to 

 reproduce. 



I called in at the female's reser\e and found the remains of 

 some of the entrails suspended on a spur on a log. 



The young Strcpcra's clothing was in a state of a mixture of 

 long dusky down and rapidly grownig feather.^. In the fort- 

 night of my visit all the breast and under feathers re[)laced the 

 down. The tails were well grown. One bird I took for the 

 daughter was slightly smaller, less bold and .she had less white 

 on her tail than her companion. They were only beginning to 

 learn to ])ick u]) for themselves. After the first week of my 

 stay the mother ceased feeding the little hen-bird, and so the 

 father took on both of the children. As I left he, too, was be- 

 ginning to train his charges to feed themselves. He would 

 bring a jiiece of meat, for instance, drop it in front of one of 

 them. If the youngster squawked he made no attempt to feed 

 it. .\t last, losing patience, he would fly oft', his son following 

 with loud cries. If hungry, the latter returned and had a try 

 to feed himself, and by degrees found he could do it quite well. 

 Occasionally the parents were absent for a long while. Then 

 the little ones .sat in a sjiecial corner of a large willow growing 

 near the door. It was quaint to hear them trying to imitate 

 their jiarents' various calls. This tpieer little gurgle, low as if 

 afraid of others hearing it coming out of the heart of the tree, 

 sounded eerie. 



The adult female Strcf^cra's coat was distinctl\- rusty, but her 

 mate possessed a very fine black one. 



Once the male bird took a buttered crust from my hand. An- 

 other morning he hopped into the doorway, and seeing the table 

 set for breakfast, perched on the c(M-ner of the table, sat with 

 his head on one side watching while I cut him a piece of bread, 

 buttered, and as a great treat sprinkled some sugar over it. He 

 wouldn't take it from me, e\idently a little nervous of the house 

 enclo>^ure, but as soon as I jtlaced it on the tabic he hoi)|)ed along, 

 picked it up and flew oft'. 



The situations of the nests. I found, \aric(l. Some were fairly 

 low, (|uite an easy climb, while others, as in the photo enclosed, 

 were very high — up as high as 70 feet. 



Many of the lower nests were too awkwardly placed to ])hoto- 

 graph. and others too difficult to focus upon. 



