NEAR VIEWS OF WILD LIFE 



guttural note of alarm or displeasure. Then after 

 a minute or two he began to shake and bruise the 

 worm. I waited to see him disclose the nest, but 

 he would not, and finally devoured the worm. 

 Then he hopped or flitted about amid the branches 

 above me, uttering his harsh note every minute or 

 two. 



After a half -hour or more I gave it up and parted 

 the curtain of thorny branches which separated the 

 thicket from the meadow and stepped outside. I 

 had moved along only a few paces when I discov- 

 ered the nest on an outer branch almost in the sun- 

 shine. The mother bird was covering her half- 

 grown young. As I put up my hand toward her, 

 she slipped off, withdrew a few feet into the 

 branches, and uttered her guttural calls. 



In the nest were four young, one of them nearly 

 ready to leave it, while another barely had its 

 eyes open; the eldest one looked frightened, while 

 the youngest lifted up its head with open mouth 

 for food. The most mature one pointed its bill 

 straight up and sat as still as if petrified. The whole 

 impression one got from the nest and its contents 

 was of something inept and fortuitous. But the 

 cares of a family woke the parents up and they got 

 down to real work in caring for their charge. 



The young had a curious, unbirdlike aspect with 

 threadlike yellow stripes, and looked as if they were 

 wet or just out of the shell. 



89 



