NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH 
perch, brought her daintiest morsels of food 
and relieved her from duty at least once 
every day, going out of sight inside as she 
did. In two weeks from the time she began 
to sit there was great hurrying to and from 
the old stump. The babies had arrived and 
were hungry. Both parents were kept busy 
from that time on. We could hear the little 
soft twitterings inside the stump, gentle 
coaxing for food, musical protests against 
being crowded, and the welcome of the 
mother’s return. 
At last, after ten days’ patient waiting, 
judging the nestlings to be full-feathered, 
the Man with the Camera cut open the side 
of the nest, and taking three of the babies 
out, gently placed them on a white cloth in 
the sun and photographed them. Mean- 
while the fourth had asserted his right to 
freedom by flying away, and three babies at 
once being all we could well manage, we 
made no effort to capture him. 
Those were troublous times at the old 
tree nest. The sunny-tempered parents 
32 
