64 A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. 



more in the ordinary way, they did it nervously. 

 They fed as if- expecting the young to bite them. 

 They would fly up on the branch beside the nest, 

 give a jab down at the youngsters, whip tails 

 and flee. You would have thought the young 

 parents had been playing house before, and 

 their dolls had suddenly turned into live hungry 

 nestlings. 



I watched this family till the house was de- 

 serted, and I had to ride along a line of brush 

 before finding them. The young were now 

 pretty silvery-breasted creatures who sat up in a 

 small oak while the old birds hunted through the 

 brush for food for them. Though I rode Billy 

 into the chaparral after them, and got near 

 enough to see the black line over the bill of the 

 father bird, they did not mind, but hunted away 

 quite unconcernedly ; for we had been through 

 many things together, and were now old and fast 

 friends. 



