A BIRD'S- NEST HUNTER. 93 



cavity up to the time when the brood were 

 nearly ready to shift for themselves. Both 

 birds took their share of the digging, and on 

 several occasions I saw one feeding the 

 other. After the eggs were deposited, the 

 mother (or the sitter) displayed admirable 

 courage, refusing again and again to quit 

 her post when I peered in upon her, and 

 even when with my cane I rapped smartly 

 upon the stump. If I put my fingers into 

 the hole, however, she followed them out in 

 hot haste. Even when most seriously dis- 

 turbed by my attentions the pair made use 

 of no other notes than the common chick- 

 adee, dee, but these they sometimes deliv- 

 ered in an unnaturally sharp, fault-finding 

 tone. 



My two other titmouse nests were both 

 in apple-trees, and one of them was in my 

 own door-yard, though beyond convenient 

 reach without the help of a ladder. The 

 owners of this last were interesting for a 

 very decided change in their behavior after 

 the young were hatched, and especially as 

 the time for the little ones' exodus drew 

 near. At first, notwithstanding their door 

 opened right upon the street, as it were, 



