IN THE NEST AND AT LUNCH. 



Oh, the dainty pouches 

 Hanging all along 



Under larches 



And green arches 

 AVhere birds throng ! 



For our pleasure, 



In rich measure, 

 They will scatter forth their treasure, — 



Golden notes 



From tiny throats, 

 And pockets full of song ! 



— Josephine Pollard. 



The nest nicely made to the taste of the happy pair, and 

 hidden in some suitable place, the period of expectancy be- 

 gins. Here the devoted mother-bird exercises the greatest 

 care for her eggs, and displays at times remarkable bold- 

 ness. It is at such times that she shows great tact and 

 many artifices to mislead the nest-hunter. 



The period of incubation extends from about ten days for 

 some of the smaller birds, as the Wren, to fifty or sixty 

 for the Ostrich. The mother-bird is, in general, the sitter. 

 However, both male and female may incubate. When the 

 eggs are kept at a temperature of about one hundred de- 

 grees, the germ cell soon breaks up into a mass of cells, 

 which later form the organs and parts of the chick. While 

 the embryo is developing thus, it is absorbing or feeding 

 upon the rich food supply in the "yolk." When the 

 food is all consumed the chick pecks its way out of the 

 shell by means of a little tube on the end of its bill with 



—3 (33) 



