AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE. 87 



on the premises, driving off the ranchman's cats 

 and gobblers, and drinking from his watering- 

 trough, if they were taken at close quarters, with 

 young in their nests, the noisy birds were aston- 

 ishingly timid. One could hardly understand it 

 in them. 



One afternoon I sat down under the tree to 

 watch them. Mountain Billy rested his bridle 

 on my knee, and the ranchman's dog came out to 

 join us ; but the mother blackbird, though she 

 came with food in her bill and started to walk 

 down the branch over our heads, stopped short 

 of the nest when her eye fell on us. She shook 

 her tail and called chack, and her mate, who sat 

 near, opened wide his bill and whistled chee. 

 The small birds were hungry and grew im- 

 patient, seeing no cause for delay, so raised their 

 three fuzzy heads above the edge of the nest and 

 sent imperative calls out of their three empty 

 throats. As the parents did not answer the sum- 

 mons, the young dozed off again, but when the 

 old ones did get courage to light near the nest 

 there was such a rousing chorus that they flew off 

 alarmed for the safety of their clamorous brood. 

 After that outbreak, it seemed as if the mother 

 bird would never go back to her children ; but 

 finally she came to the tree and, after edging 

 along falteringly, lit on a branch above them. 

 The instant she touched foot, however, she was 

 seized with nervous qualms and turned round 



