Method of Bird Study and Photography 1 1 



very beginning of the breeding season. This fighting mood, 

 which is an adaptation for the protection of the home and all 

 that it contains, is by no means a measure of the other parental 

 impulses. It has a gradual rise, reaches a maximum when the 



Fig. 7. Kingbird far 

 hidden behind him. 



The male with grasshopper in bill, his mate, partly 



young are ready to leave the nest, at a time when protection is 

 most needed, and then gradually subsides, like a fever which has 

 run its course. 



One instinct may be overdone, as when a bird like the 

 Phcebe builds more than one nest, in which case her building 

 instinct is apparently not satisfied by the usual exercise, or 

 another may be scamped, as when Swallows, House Martins, or 



