56 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 



at once availed herself of this means of entering her 

 home. 88 The male, however, as before, was more 

 wary. He had braved the camera to bring food to 

 his mate, but his offspring had apparently not so 

 strong a claim upon him. He would fly off in search 

 of food and shortly return with a caterpillar, then 

 perch quietly for several minutes a few yards from 

 the nest, when, repelled by the camera and attracted 

 by the food in his bill, he yielded to temptation, de- 

 voured the caterpillar, vigorously wiped his bill, at 

 once started to forage for more food, and returned 

 with it only to repeat his previous performance. 



Occasionally he uttered a low whistle, addressed 

 presumably to the female, and at times a chickadee- 

 dee-dee, which I interpreted as a protest to me, and 

 both notes were also uttered by the female. 



The latter took so kindly to the doorstep that it 

 was determined to give her a door, and to this end a 

 leaf was pinned over the entrance to her home in 

 such a manner that it swung to and fro, like the 

 latch to a keyhole. This clearly did not meet with 

 her approval, and at first she seemed puzzled to ac- 

 count for the apparent disappearance of the nest 

 opening. But in less than a minute she solved the 

 mystery, pushed the leaf to one side, and disappeared 

 within. 



Returning to the nest on June 12th, nothing was 

 to be seen of either parent, and I feared that they or 

 their offspring had fallen victims to the countless 

 dangers which beset nesting birds and their young. 

 Looking about for some clew to their fate, I found 

 on the ground, near the nest stub, the worn tail-feath- 

 ers of the female bird. The molting season had not 



