316 TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 



ally more active in feeding them than the male. 

 Among the birds of prey, like hawks and eagles, 

 the female is the larger and more powerful, and 

 therefore better able to defend and to care for 

 her young. Among all animals, the affection 

 of the mother for her offspring seems to be 

 greater than that of her mate, though among 

 the birds the male sometimes shows a super- 

 abundance of paternal regard that takes in the 

 young of other species. Thus a correspondent 

 sends me this curious incident of a male blue- 

 bird and some young vireos. A pair of blue- 

 birds were rearing their second brood in a box 

 on the porch of my correspondent, and a pair 

 of vireos had a nest with young in some lilac 

 bushes but a few feet away. The writer had 

 observed the male bluebird perch in the lilacs 

 near the young vireos, and, he feared, with mur- 

 derous intent. On such occasions the mother 

 vireo would move among the upper branches 

 much agitated. If she grew demonstrative the 

 bluebird would drive her away. One after- 

 noon the observer pulled away the leaves so as 

 to have a full view of the vireo 's nest from the 

 seat where he sat not ten feet away. Presently 

 he saw the male bluebird come to the nest 

 with a worm in its beak, and, as the young vir- 

 eos stretched up their gaping mouths, he 

 dropped the worm into one of them. Then he 

 reached over and waited upon one of the young 

 birds as its own mother would have done. A 

 few moments after he came to his own brood, 

 with a worm or insect, and then the next trip 



