A JUNE DAY CHAT 



dren, while the mothers remain on or near the 

 nests with the eggs or young of the previous 

 family. 



Some years have elapsed since Mr. Bradford 

 Torrey and Mr. William Brewster drew the at- 

 tention of bird-observers to the fact that, even 

 during the breeding season, great companies of 

 robins congregate nightly at some given point 

 more or less remote from the nesting-site. Mr. 

 Torrey acknowledges that he at first entertained 

 a suspicion that these birds were adult males 

 shirking nursery responsibilities. Husbands and 

 fathers who " thus unseasonably went off to bed 

 in a crowd, leaving their mates to care for eggs 

 and little ones." But farther investigations 

 his own and Mr. Brewster's proved that the in- 

 dividuals who composed the assembly were nearly 

 all young birds, with " a sprinkling of adult 

 males." The latter were evidently the fathers 

 assuming charge of the elder children, in the 

 laudable desire to lighten the mothers' nursery 

 cares and responsibilities. 



In a walk through the grove, or during a stroll 

 around the table d'hote, one meets with babies of 

 the furred or feathered tribes at nearly every 

 step nowadays. Parents conduct their children 



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