TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 313 



more active in feeding them than the male. Among 

 the birds of prey, like hawks and eagles, the female 

 is the larger and more powerful, and therefore better 

 able to defend and to care for her young. Among 

 all animals, the affection of the mother for her off- 

 spring seems to be greater than that of her mate, 

 though among the birds the male sometimes shows 

 a superabundance of paternal regard that takes in the 

 young of other species. Thus a correspondent sends 

 me this curious incident of a male bluebird and some 

 young vireos. A pair of bluebirds were rearing 

 their second brood in a box on the porch of my cor- 

 respondent, and a pair of vireos had a nest with 

 young in some lilac bushes but a few feet away. 

 The writer had observed the male bluebird perch in 

 the lilacs near the young vireos, and, he feared, with 

 murderous intent. On such occasions the mother 

 vireo would move among the upper branches much 

 agitated. If she grew demonstrative the bluebird 

 would drive her away. One afternoon the observer 

 pulled away the leaves so as to have a full view of 

 the vireo' s nest from the seat where he sat not ten 

 feet away. Presently he saw the male bluebird come 

 to the nest with a worm in its beak, and, as the 

 young vireos stretched up their gaping mouths, he 

 dropped the worm into one of them. Then he 

 reached over and waited upon one of the young birds 

 as its own mother would have done. A few mo- 

 ments after he came to his own brood, with a worm 

 or insect, and then the next trip he visited the nest 

 of the neighbor again, greatly to the displeasure of 



