90 General Notes. ae 
the warbler I was joined by two other parties of bird-students who offered 
to bear witness, as we all had an excellent view of the bird.— Mrs. GrorcE 
H. Metien, Newton Highlands, Mass. 
A Remarkable Case of Bird-feeding.— This year, 1916, the House 
Wrens appeared on April 30, and presently a pair of them took pos- 
session of a bird box nailed to a disused poultry house at the rear of 
the lot. May 27, there was one egg in the nest. June 3, there were seven 
eggs, neatly concealed by feathers fastened upright in the rim of the nest 
and curving inward. June 14, there were four young, looking like wine- 
colored grub-worms, and three eggs. Later all the eggs hatched. June 
23, when the older ones were nine days old, the parents fed them 34 times 
between 6.30 and 7.30 A. M. and at least half the hour was spent in trying 
to drive away six or eight English Sparrows that hung over the edge of the 
poultry house peering down at the nest, alighting on the lid and ledge of it, 
and manifesting the most excessive and persistent curiosity concerning 
the young which were keeping up a constant clamoring for food. 
At first while the nest was being built and before the young were hatched, 
the parents made little fuss when another bird or a person approached, 
bestowing most of their scolding upon two cats that prowled around. 
But their anxietv grew with the development of their young and they 
protested more and more at every disturbance, both of them nipping the 
sparrows and following me and the cats with their angry chatter. 
On June 24, the parents fed 21 times between 6.30 and 7 A. M. and again 
spent much of the time in fighting the sparrows which were even more 
impudent than before, peering into the opening of the box and remaining 
stubbornly upon the ledge in spite of the peckings they received. 
On the afternoon of June 25, the young were fed 86 times between 4.40 
and 5.40, and I discovered that the feeding was now done by one bird, the 
male, who no longer had time either to scold or to sing. Only five times 
in the hour did he utter a brief twitter, and from the twenty-fifth to the 
seventieth trip the feeding was incessant. He had discovered a rich 
feeding ground close by and neither sparrows nor cats interrupted him. 
Moreover, he did his best to keep the nest clean; but this, as we afterward 
ascertained was too much for him. He had to neglect his housekeeping 
to fill the seven hungry mouths. 
That evening and the next day, by going near, we made sure that the 
female bird was missing, probably caught by the cats. But the work of 
the male so far surpassed that of other birds we had been watching that 
the matter was reported to Mr. Sperry, Assistant in the Nature Study 
Department of the Western Illinois Normal, and on June 28, the last day 
the birds would be in the nest, he and members of his class watched by 
turns. He himself came at 3.45 A. M. to begin the tally on a large sheet 
spaced for each hour and each hour space divided into quarters. A clock 
stood beside the watchers. , 
At 4.15 the Wren came out of a small elm where he had spent the night 
