JERRY THE KINGBIRD 205 



each one of which was hatching from 3,000 to 5,000 young 

 bees every day, the few it took to keep him and his wife 

 well fed amounted to little, especially as most of them 

 were drones. 



Two broods were hatched this first season. The young 

 were given a two weeks' course of education as soon as 

 they were able to fly. They would sit close to the parent 

 birds, first in one tree and then in another, watching for 

 some insect to pass by. For perhaps a week the old birds 

 caught the insects and fed them to the young. One day 

 the latter part of the week, one of the bravest of the 

 young birds made a dart for a butterfly on his own ac- 

 count. When he had succeeded in catching it he carried 

 it back to the tree on which the family rested with as much 

 show of pride as ever a boy felt when he brought home 

 the first dollar he earned. Soon one of his brothers, not 

 to be outdone, made a dart for an insect and within a day 

 or two all of the fledglings were hunting on their own 

 account. Then they moved down into the plum orchard 

 where there were grasshoppers as well as other insects in 

 abundance. Now, the mother began to lay a second clutch 

 of eggs, and Jerry resumed his place as watchman. By 

 the middle of August Jerry and his mate forsook the Eed 

 June tree and were to be seen flying across the meadow 

 back and forth, darting up and down, often swooping to a 

 head of clover or a goldenrod and rising again without 

 alighting. There was a haystack on one side of the 

 meadow, and a cornfield on the other. Jerry would often 

 perch himself either on a tassel of corn or on a stake in the 

 haystack, and watch for hours, making a dart after a 

 grasshopper here or a fly there, each time returning to the 

 same spot. In fact, this habit of sitting in a definite 



