no Bird Comrades 



parents and their hungry bairns. The bantlings sat 

 chirping in the saplings, or flitted from twig to twig, 

 twinkling their wings in the coaxing way that is charac- 

 teristic of young birds, while the papa and mamma swung 

 out into the air, nabbed the insects on the wing, and flew 

 back to the trees, describing many circles, ellipses, and 

 festoons of rare grace and beauty. The snapping of their 

 mandibles could often be heard as they closed upon the 

 fated insects. Most of the gnats thus captured were 

 thrust into the mouths of the young birds, the parents 

 dashing up to them and feeding them without alighting. 

 As lavish a minstrel as the pewee pater Camillas is under 

 most circumstances, that morning he was too busy to 

 tune his wind harp. 



Speaking of the voracious appetites of birds, as exhib- 

 ited by the young pewees, which never seemed to get 

 enough, I am reminded of something I witnessed one day 

 in a deep, wooded hollow. A red-eyed vireo suddenly 

 appeared in the branches above me, holding an immense 

 green worm in his beak. Then followed a tussle for the 

 " upper hand" that was worth seeing. The bird, holding 

 its squirming victim by one end, proceeded to beat it 

 against the limb, though it was almost too big and recal- 

 citrant for him to handle. Presently the vireo, after a 

 good deal of effort, succeeded in passing his quarry 

 through his bill from end to end, thus reducing it to some- 

 what smaller dimensions. Still, it was a large morsel for 

 so small a diner. 



However, there were some intimations that the bird 



