314 RIVERBY 



the vireo, who scolded him sharply as she watched 

 his movements from a near branch. My correspond- 

 ent says: "I watched them for several days; some- 

 times the bluebird would visit his own nest several 

 times before lending a hand to the vireos. Some- 

 times he resented the vireos' plaintive fault-finding 

 and drove them away. I never saw the female blue- 

 bird near the vireos' nest." 



That the male bird should be broader in his sym- 

 pathies and affections will not, to most men at least, 

 seem strange. 



Another correspondent relates an equally curious 

 incident about a wren and some young robins. 

 "One day last summer," he says, "while watching 

 a robin feeding her young, I was surprised to see a 

 wren alight on the edge of the nest in the absence 

 of the robin, and deposit a little worm in the throat 

 of one of the young robins. It then flew off about 

 ten feet, and it seemed as if it would almost burst 

 with excessive volubility. It then disappeared, and 

 the robin came and went, just as the wren returned 

 with another worm for the young robins. This was 

 kept up for an hour. Once they arrived simultane- 

 ously, when the wren was apparently much agitated, 

 but waited impatiently on its previous perch, some 

 ten feet off, until the robin had left, when it visited 

 the nest as before. I climbed the tree for a closer 

 inspection, and found only a well-regulated robin 

 household, but nowhere a wren's nest. After com- 

 ing down I walked around the tree and discovered 

 a hole, and upon looking in saw a nest of sleeping 



