PHASES OF BIRD LIFE. 179 
these eggs were almost always hatched first. One 
wood-thrush’s nest contained two bunting and three 
thrush eggs. As soon as the bantlings had broken 
from the shell, the buntings could be readily dis- 
tinguished from the thrushes, for the, former feath- 
ered much more rapidly than the latter. When the 
youngsters were about half grown, they crowded one 
another considerably in their adobe apartment, but, 
to all intents and purposes, they lived together in 
beautiful domestic harmony. At all events, no un- 
seemly family wrangles came under my eye. By 
and by, on one of my visits, I found that the bunt- 
ings had left the maternal roof (to speak with a 
good deal of poetic license), while the thrush trio 
still sat contentedly on the nest, and did not display 
any fear when I caressingly stroked their brown 
backs, but looked up at me in a zaive, confiding 
way that was very gratifying. Quite different was 
the conduct of the inmates of a bush-sparrow’s nest, 
hidden in the grass at the woodland’s border. The 
baby sparrows rushed pell-mell from their pretty 
homestead when I came near, leaving a bunting, 
which had been hatched and reared with them, 
alone..im. the -nest, ~ He jwas- not: “nearly? so. far. 
developed as his brothers and sisters, and had no 
intention of being driven from home. 
But here is an instance more like that of the 
bunting-wood-thrush episode just described. A pretty 
basket, woven of fine fibrous material, swung from 
the lower branches of an apple-tree in the orchard 
of one of my farmer friends, and contained three 
