8o Wild Birds 



10.18. Cock Robin comes again, but my eye was again off the 

 nest, and in a moment the business was done. Mother 

 Robin stays and broods. I change the shutter, open 

 and close the tent window, without giving her any ap- 

 parent anxiety. 



10.30. Another visit from the male, who comes quickly, de- 

 livers a grasshopper or two and departs, while his faith- 

 ful mate resumes her post of duty. 



10.45. The cock brings another coil of angleworms, and the 

 hen, leaving her charge just long enough for the business 

 of feeding, drops back on the nest. 



10.55. The male is taking it easy. This time he has an un- 

 usually large grasshopper, which is not cut in twain, but 

 delivered whole. At the signal of his approach the 

 mother leaves, having brooded forty minutes by the 

 watch. 



10.57. Two minutes elapse. Back comes the alma mater, 

 loaded to the muzzle with blueberries, which are shot 

 out one by one, and strike the yellow targets in the 

 bull's eye every time. She comes to the farther side and 

 broods at the moment the preliminary work of feeding 

 and inspection is over. 



11.16. The male has now brought a load of bright red choke- 

 cherries. He hops down the branch by the usual path 

 and up to the nest, but the female, who is brooding, 

 strangely keeps her position and, whether from absent- 

 mindedness or caprice, refuses to budge. When the 

 male gives an impatient cuck! cuck! the mother can keep 

 her position no longer, for the young upset her equi- 

 librium in their struggle, and she hops to one side. Re- 

 suming her place she sits there in the bright sunshine, 

 with back to the tent, mouth agape, and crest erect. 

 Twenty inches away are the tent, the camera, and the 

 eye of the observer, but for none of these things does she 

 now care a straw. They have been thoroughly tested 

 and found harmless. 



11.43. Cock Robin is on hand with a beak full of grasshoppers, 



