DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED 32] 
eggs. Even when on guard duty his sex asserts itself, 
and the sight of a fat moth tempts him to forsake his 
post long enough to snap it up. 
When the mother bird returns, she alights near, preens 
her feathers carefully, answers his note with a twittering 
chirp, turns the eggs, and settles herself on the nest with 
many little fussings to make herself comfortable. 
- For thirteen days the mother broods while the father 
bird watches, and then the wonderful bits of bird life in 
the nest bring another change. Now the male is ever on 
the wing, catching and bringing food to those hungry 
pink mouths, At first they are fed by regurgitation, but 
after the third day large insects are torn apart and given 
fresh. Fourteen crickets in ten minutes was the record 
of one busy forager. The watchful male no longer tucks 
his head under his wings at night, but sleeps with it 
drawn back between his shoulders, at his post a few feet 
from the nest. If danger threatens, not only he and the 
mother bird will defend the nestlings, but their calls will 
often bring every Kingbird of the neighborhood to the 
rescue. 
In two weeks the babies have grown so that they 
overflow the nest, and one balances himself outside. 
And now his lessons begin. As soon as he has learned 
to use his wings he is taught to catch his food in the 
same way in which he must obtain it all his life. I have 
seen the parent bring a dragonfly or other insect, alight 
with it opposite above the young bird, and call his atten- 
tion to it in a peculiar low twitter. Then, when quite 
ready, he releases the prey, which half falls, half flutters, 
21 
