136 THE MALE RUBY-THROAT. 
throughout the period of nidification. Nut- 
tall speaks explicitly to the same effect, 
though with no specification of the grounds 
on which his statement is based. The later 
systematic biographers — Brewer, Samuels, 
Minot, and the authors of New England 
Bird Life—are silent in respect to the 
point. Mr. Burroughs, in Wake - Robin, 
mentions having found two nests, and gives 
us to understand that he saw only the fe- 
male birds. Mrs. Treat, on the other hand, 
makes the father a conspicuous figure about 
the single nest concerning which she reports. 
Mr. James Russell Lowell, too, speaks of 
watching both parents as they fed the young 
ones: “The mother always alighted, while 
the father as uniformly remained upon the 
wing.” 
So far, then, the evidence was decidedly, 
not to say decisively, in the masculine ruby- 
throat’s favor. But while I had no desire 
to make out a case against him, and in 
fact was beginning to feel half ashamed of 
my uncomplimentary surmises, I was still 
greatly impressed with what my own eyes 
had seen, or rather had not seen, and thought 
it worth while to push the inquiry a little 
further. 
