18 BIRD STORIES FROM BURROUGHS 



doned the undertaking. The next season a wiser or 

 more experienced pair made the attempt again, and 

 succeeded. They placed the nest against the raf- 

 ter where it joins the plate ; they used mud from 

 the start to level up with and to hold the first 

 twigs and straws, and had soon completed a firm, 

 shapely structure. When the young were about 

 ready to fly, it was interesting to note that there 

 was apparently an older and a younger, as in most 

 families. One bird was more advanced than any 

 of the others. Had the parent birds intentionally 

 stimulated it with extra quantities of food, so as 

 to be able to launch their offspring into the 

 world one at a time ? At any rate, one of the birds 

 was ready to leave the nest a day and a half be- 

 fore any of the others. I happened to be looking 

 at it when the first impulse to get outside the 

 nest seemed to seize it. Its parents were encour- 

 aging it with calls and assurances from some 

 rocks a few yards away. It answered their calls 

 in vigorous, strident tones. Then it climbed over 

 the edge of the nest upon the plate, took a few 

 steps forward, then a few more, till it was a yard 

 from the nest and near the end of the timber, 

 and could look off into free space. Its parents 

 apparently shouted, " Come on ! " But its cour- 

 age was not quite equal to the leap ; it looked 

 around, and, seeing how far it was from home, 



