180 IN BIRD LAND. 
young orchard orioles and one cow-bunting. One 
day I procured a step-ladder and climbed up to the 
nest, when the bunting sprang out with a wild cry 
and toppled to the ground, while the young orioles, 
not yet half-fledged, merely pried open their mouths 
for food. Yet these birds, when grown, are fully as 
dexterous on the wing as their foster relatives, the 
buntings. 
During the same spring some observations on 
youthful blackbirds were made. They may be of 
sufficient interest to register in this place. Did you 
know that a part of the heads of infant blackbirds 
remains bare a week or two after the other por- 
tions of their bodies are well feathered? ‘This is 
true of the three species of my acquaintance, — 
the purple grackles, the red-winged blackbirds, and 
the cow-buntings. The bald portion includes the 
forehead, part of the crown, the chin, and throat, 
and extends behind and below the ears, which are 
covered with a tiny tuft of fuzz. Had this unfeathered 
portion been red instead of black, the youngsters 
would have looked quite lke diminutive turkey- 
buzzards. One may be pardoned for being some- 
what puzzled over the childish conundrum, Why 
young blackbirds, of all the birds in the circle of 
one’s acquaintance, must go bareheaded during the 
first few weeks of their life. By and by, however, 
the feathers grow out on this space as thickly as on 
the remainder of their bodies. 
Strange that I have found so few black-capped 
titmice’s nests, familiar and abundant as they are 
