3 8 Wild Birds 



well as for the person inside. Taking a look about, they would 

 drop down to the nest only a step away. This was done more 

 than ten times in the course of the day. Observations began 

 at 8.40 in the morning and closed at 4.40 P. M., so that, with an 

 intermission at noon, they lasted nearly seven hours and twenty 

 minutes. During this interval the young were fed with wild 

 red cherries, blueberries, and insects, mainly grasshoppers, and 

 nearly always by regurgitation. The nest and young were 

 regularly cleaned, and the new conditions seemed to have been 

 completely adopted. The young, whose wing-quills now showed 

 half an inch of the feather shaft, were entirely fearless. 



On July 1 6th, the second day of observation and the third 

 after the removal of the nesting bough, the old birds began the 

 work of feeding in exactly twelve minutes after the tent was in 

 place. I will add here that I have usually removed the tent at 

 the end of the day's work, although in some cases it has been 

 found advantageous to leave it overnight. In a little more than 

 three hours the old birds came to the nest eighteen times, bring- 

 ing abundant stores of fruit and insects. 



On July 1 7th, the third day at this nest, feeding began in 

 three minutes after closure of the tent. It was the hottest day 

 of the summer, but life at the nest went on without accident or 

 interruption. The young now sat or stood with heads upturned 

 in the characteristic attitude shown in one of the illustrations. 

 They flew on the morning of the ipth of July, when thirteen 

 days old, seeking the cover of a thicket of birches close by, where 

 they were cared for by their parents until ready to leave the 

 neighborhood. They were scattered over an area of several 

 square rods, and kept calling in their monotonous way, z-e~e-e-e-t! 

 z-e-e-e-e-t! One of their number, shown in a photograph (Fig. 

 59), was not touched or posed, but occupied a natural perch 

 chosen by himself in his flight from tree to tree. 



About the middle of July I noticed the neatly drilled circular 



The House openin & of a Chickadee's nest on the underside of a 



W ren ' small dead apple branch, about twelve feet from the 



ground. It was so admirably adapted for study that 



I remember the feeling of regret at being so late in the field. 



