68 A THORN-TREE NEST. 



the unconcealable banner that proclaims to the 

 bird-student that the sitter is at home, even this 

 unruly member she had been able to hide in 

 some way, but this morning it remained visible. 

 In a minute the shrike returned and fed some- 

 body, — I suppose his mate, since she did not 

 move aside ; and again in another minute he 

 repeated the operation. So he went on bringing 

 food perhaps a dozen times in close succession. 

 Then he rested a few minutes, when she who 

 through the long days of sitting had been so 

 calm and quiet seemed all at once as restless as 

 any warbler. She rose on the edge of the nest, 

 and uttered the low, yearning cry I had heard 

 from him, then flew to the ground, returned, 

 perched on the edge, leaned over, and gave three 

 pokes as if feeding. Then she flew to another 

 part of the tree, thence to a fence post, then back 

 asrain to the eds^e of the nest. In a moment the 

 uneasy bird slipped into her old place, but, ap- 

 parently too restless to stay, was out again in a 

 few seconds, when she stood up in the nest and 

 began calling, — a loud but musical two-note 

 call, the second tone a third higher than the 

 first, and different from anything I had heard 

 from her before. If it were a call to her mate, 

 he did not at once appear, and she relieved her 

 feelings by flying to the maple and perching a 

 few minutes, though so great was the attraction 



