148 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



marked the entrance of the Rufous Whistler into its 

 country's verse. 



It is, I think, fair to assume that the nomadic 

 "Joy-Birds" are constant to the one favorable 

 locality for breeding-purposes. Year after year a 

 pair came (returned?) to a favorite bush orchard 

 in the bright days of early September. No one ever 

 saw them arrive. One day there would be no hint 

 of their presence, and the next day the old orchard 

 was vocal with melody. Given a week or so for 

 song and play, the minstrels would commence house- 

 keeping. The fragile, fibrous nest involves very 

 little constructive labor, and most of this is done 

 by the female. Her gay consort, however, is not at 

 all backward in tending the queer, olive-colored 

 eggs ; nor is he at all lacking in fidelity to the babies. 



In nine cases out of ten the mother-love of a 

 female bird renders her distinctly the braver, not to 

 say the more assertive, when the young are appa- 

 rently menaced. (This, of course, explains why it 

 is the mother-bird that appears most often in photo- 

 graphs of birds' nests.) It was not so with the 

 family of Rufous-breasted Whistlers which afforded 

 my first pictures of the species. In the heat of 

 November the parents were briskly attending a pair 

 of hungry offspring in an orchard home when the 

 ubiquitous photographer found them out. Not even 

 the strange-looking eye of the camera could daunt 

 that dutiful male bird. He came right back to those 

 ravenous babies while the focus was being obtained, 

 thereby setting an example which the anxious little 

 mother was not particularly slow to follow. 



With the coming of the new year the fire of 



