190 IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY. 



nestlings all stirring abroad. I noticed that she 

 fed oftenest the birdlings who were out, whether 

 to strengthen them for further effort, or to 

 offer an inducement to those in the nest to come 

 up higher where food was to be had, she did 

 not tell. I observed, also, that when she came 

 home she did not, as before, alight on the level 

 of the little ones, but above them. Perhaps 

 this was to coax them upward ; at any rate, it 

 had that effect : they stretched up and mounted 

 the next stem above, and so they kept on as- 

 cending. About three o'clock I was again 

 obliged to surrender to the power of the sun, 

 and retire for a season to a place he could not 

 enter, the house. 



Some hours passed before I made my next 

 call, and I found that oriole matters had not 

 rested, if I had; the two nestlings had taken 

 flight to the tree the first one had chosen, and 

 three were on the top twig above the nest, which 

 latter swung empty and deserted. Mamma was 

 feeding the three in her own tree, while papa 

 attended as usual to the outsiders, and found 

 leisure to drop in a song now and then. 



While I watched, number three took his life 

 in his hands (as it were) and launched out 

 upon the air. He reached a tree not so far 

 away as his brothers had chosen, and his mother 

 sought him out and fed him there. But he did 



