180 A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. 



mouth of the nest. Though I moved up to within 

 twenty feet of the nest, , she paid no attention to 

 me but hurried in. She liked the cotton so well 

 she stopped in her hallway, reached up to pull at 

 the white bundles, and tweaked and tugged till, 

 finally, she backed triumphantly down the hole 

 with one. 



Her mate, less familiar with my experiments, 

 started to go to the nest after her, but the sight of 

 the cotton scared him so he fled ignominiously 

 back into the treetop. He stayed there singing 

 till she came out, when he flew up to her with a 

 dainty he had discovered — at least the two put 

 their bills together ; perhaps it was just a caress, 

 for they were a tender, gentle little pair. 



Having proved that my bird liked feathers and 

 cotton, I wanted to see what she thought of straws. 

 Apparently she did not think much of them. She 

 looked very much dashed when she came home 

 and found the yellow sticks protruding from the 

 nest hole. She hesitated, turned her head over, 

 flew to a twig on one side of the oak and then 

 back to one on the other side. Finally she 

 mustered courage, and with her crest flattened as 

 if she did not like it, darted down into the hole. 

 When she flew out, however, she went right to 

 her mate, and forgetting all her troubles at sight 

 of him, fluttered her wings and lisped like a young 

 bird as she put up her bill to have him feed her. 



Perhaps it was unkind to bother the poor bird 



