278 LAND BIRDS 
bird is the building of dummy nests. I ean find no au- 
thority for this statement other than my own observation. 
but am positive investigation will prove it to be true. 
The male sometimes, if not invariably, sleeps in one of 
these ‘‘ dummies.” 
By cutting a slit in the roof of a nest containing 
young, it was possible to watch the brood develop. 
712. Cacrus WREN. 
“4 long, purse-shaped affair.” 
This slit was closed and fastened after each examina- 
tion. At first they were the usual naked, pinkish nest- 
lings, with a sparse sprinkling of whitish down on crown 
and back, but they soon took on the soft brown and 
white plumage of young wrens, and were remarkably en- 
terprising. While very young they were fed by regurgi- 
tation, but on the fifth day, when their eyes had opened, 
the parents carried insects in their beaks when they entered 
