74 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



with her somewhat insignificant-looking catch, 

 her chicks would not open their mouths to receive 

 it, and she was therefore placed under the rather 

 humiliating necessity of sitting down, as shown 

 in our illustration, and holding it in her bill until 

 such time as they should grow hungry again. 



Wishing to ascertain what relationship existed 

 between the affection and intelligence of these 

 two species of birds, I ran over and borrowed a 

 couple of young thrushes that were covered with 

 feathers and almost ready to fledge from a nest 

 not far away, and, taking the food-surfeited chicks 

 out of their home, put the strangers in, and 

 retired with the callow brood into my place of 

 concealment to await developments. 



When the male song thrush arrived with food, 

 he gave it to the changelings without taking the 

 slightest heed of the fact that they did not belong 

 to him. His mate certainly did notice that 

 there was something radically wrong, judging by 

 the expression on her countenance, but very soon 

 became sufficiently reconciled to the situation, 

 not only to feed, but to sit down and cover the 

 strangers. 



I now turned my experimental attention to 

 the robin sitting on the opposite side of the 

 chalk-pit. Exchanging her clutch of eggs for 

 two of the baby song thrushes in my hiding tent, 

 I retired again to wait and watch. As soon as 



