Illustrations of the Method 



53 



ing bough was defended with the same bold spirit for which 

 this bird is celebrated. The young Were brooded night and 

 day, while birds of other species were constantly assailed and 

 driven from the premises. 



At noon on the ninth day of July one Kingbird, then full- 



Fig. 38. Warbling Vireo bringing insect to young. The rod-shaped 

 body between the head of the bird and the branch is not a part of the 

 tree, but the abdomen of a dragon-fly, which was dragged from its 

 pupa-case, before its wings had unfolded. 



fledged, was standing on the branch beside the nest. When 

 touched he was off like a shot, and at this signal the others 

 tried their wings for the first time and landed in the grass. 

 After being replaced many times, two consented to remain, and 

 spent that night in the old home, but forsook it the next morning 

 when two weeks old. The first nest, which had been displaced 

 in a similar way and which as we have seen eventually contained 

 two birds, was occupied eighteen days. The last to leave flew 

 easily two hundred feet down the hillside on the thirteenth of 

 July. After taking this one home to secure a photograph, I 

 carried him to the hilltop and tossed him in the air. In his 

 second flight, which was long and good, he made a distant apple 



