TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 301 



iiest. In the second place I had for some time 

 suspected that a pair of jays were nesting or in- 

 tending to nest in some of the evergreens about 

 my house; a pair had been quite familiar about 

 the premises for some weeks, and I had seen 

 the male feed the female, always a sure sign 

 that the birds are mated, and are building or 

 ready to build. Many birds do this. I have 

 even seen the crow feed its mate in April. 

 Just at this writing, a pair of chickadees at- 

 tracted my attention in a spruce-tree in front of 

 my window. One of them, of course the male, 

 is industriously feeding the other. The female 

 hops about, imitating the voice and manner of 

 a young bird, her wings quivering, her cry 

 plaintive, while the male is very busy collecting 

 some sort of fine food out of the just-bursting 

 buds of the tree. Every half minute or so he 

 approaches her and delivers his morsel into her 

 beak. I should know from this fact alone that 

 the birds have a nest near by. The truth is, it 

 is just on the other side of the study in a small 

 cavity in a limb of a pear-tree. The female is 

 laying her eggs, one each day probably, and the 

 male is making life as easy for her as possible, 

 by collecting all her food for her. 



Hence, when as I came down the drive and 

 a blue- jay alighted in a maple near me, I 

 paused to observe him. He wiped his beak on 

 a limb, changed his position a couple of times, 

 then uttered a low mellow note. The voice as 

 of a young jay, tender and appealing, came out 

 of a Norway spruce near by. The cry was con- 



