208 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



flew feebly to a low perch and nothing could induce him to 

 return to his fellows again. He uttered isolated call-notes, 

 which however, at the approach of food, merged at once into 

 the baby scream. 



We had carried the young Cassiques a third of a mile 

 to the veranda of the bungalow, where they were put out of 

 sight and sound of their parents; yet early next morning 

 four Cassiques had discovered their offspring and were 

 flying back and forth close to the house carrying food in 

 their beaks. In an hour no fewer than twenty Cassiques had 

 collected, and on placing the young out in a low tree, the 

 parents came at once and fed them. 



One bird which we watched carefully brought masses of 

 caterpillars which it inserted within the wide mouth of the 

 young. Although the young birds were mixed up, five or 

 six of the same size being placed together in one artificial 

 nest, yet there was no question about recognition on the part 

 of the old birds. At least there was no reckless undirected 

 feeding; certain young were fed by certain adults. 



The second day after we had taken the young birds, no 

 Cassiques came to feed them, and we found the reason was 

 that {he entire flock had begun to found a new colony in the 

 very nearest tree to the one we had cut down, about twenty 

 feet away. This too was isolated and protected both by 

 shallow water and by the vicious tunneling ants. 



Some of the new nests must have been started the day 

 before, as the roost chambers were complete and in several the 

 top of the nest itself was finished. The rains had been rather 

 heavy for a few days and may have influenced the early build- 

 ing of the shelters above the nest. To the three or four inches 

 of nest the birds were bringing beakfuls of fibres, both sexes 

 working energetically. We were glad to know that our 

 wholesale destruction of the first colony site had wrought no 

 permanent change. At the rate the birds were building, the 



