OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 51 



the female, nor deter her from the successful prosecution 

 of her loving task. But when an effort is made to seize 

 her. she quietly slips out of the nest, and retires to a 

 short distance, where, in contemplative silence, she eagerly 

 watches the intruder in his every movement, and, on the dis- 

 appearance of the danger, as silently re-enters the nest, and 

 continues her labor as though nothing had happened. 

 An instance is related by Nuttall of a pair of these birds 

 that once built a nest in a boathouse at Fresh Pond, Cam- 

 bridge, a common place of human resort. This nest with its 

 brood was destroyed bv ruffian hands. Immediately after- 

 wards the female constructed a nest upon the same site, and 

 laid five additional eggs. This second nest is described as 

 being lined with shreds of manilla rope, taken from a loft 

 above the boathouse. 



This species has two broods in a season in this latitude, one 

 during the latter part of April or the early part of May, and 

 the other in June. Dr. Brewer believes it to be triple-brooded 

 in Massachusetts, as fresh eggs have been taken in the middle 

 of August. May it not be that these eggs were deposited 

 by birds whose early efforts had been frustrated by unknown 

 causes? The first brood being hatched quite late in 

 the season, say about the middle of July would cer- 

 tainly bring the second deposit of eggs about the middle 

 of August. Or, the matter may be explained by suppos- 

 ing that the sexes, in the particular locality referred to 

 by Dr. Brewer, may have been unequally paired. There 

 may have been an excess of males, or vice versa. In 

 the latter case these solitary individuals would have to wait 

 until something turned up, the death of an already mated 

 individual, or the straying of one unpaired from some 

 other locality, before entering into conjugal relations. Some 

 such course of events, would, it seems to us, explain the 

 phenomenon, in a satisfactory manner. 



The young birds are objects of special devotion and more 

 than ordinary solicitude, by the parents. No efforts are 



