GREY BREASTED MARTINS 335 



except when the others, driven to desperation by hunger suc- 

 ceeded in ousting him for a few moments. (Fig. 113.) 



The performance was repeated daily for several days, 

 a youngster always being at the entrance. The strongest 

 spent most of his time there. His parents tried every means 

 in their power to inveigle him forth, but for a long time 

 without avail. They brought him nice large dragon-flies, 

 which were held tantalizingly a few inches away ; they called 

 to him to follow them as they moved farther and farther 

 along the perch ; and finally, clinging to the edge of the hole, 

 they fluttered to the perch to show how easy it was. As his 

 courage increased he gradually leaned farther out of the 

 door to follow their movements or to make an attempt at 

 securing the morsels they brought. One day — the sixth — he 

 leaned too far, and lost his balance. With an effort he man- 

 aged to clutch the stick and with a mighty flutter of wings 

 found himself safe and sound on the out-hanging perch. At 

 first he scarcely dared to breathe for every little movement 

 upset his equilibrium, and it was only by hard fluttering that 

 he could regain his balance. He commenced uncertainly, 

 after the first fright wore off, to preen his feathers of the 

 small flakes of down still adhering and to stretch his wings. 

 The mother bird sat close by, chirping to give confidence, or 

 made short flights to instruct him in the first rudiments. The 

 father busily fed the others, for the mother had no time to 

 spare. 



Soon the little martin commenced to take interest in his 

 surroundings and looked about with much craning of neck, 

 glancing this way and that, both up and down. Once he 

 lost courage and scrambled back to the hole, but soon re- 

 turned as if thoroughly ashamed of himself. At last, upon 

 casting a convulsive look downward, he lost his balance, and 

 away he went, bravely struggling to keep in the air, at a 

 slant toward the ground. Suddenly the knowledge seemed 

 to come, and he rose above the bushes, a little uncertainly at 

 first, but acquiring more confidence as he progressed. And, 



