A Family of Grosbeaks 51 



I have watched a good many bird families, but I never 

 saw the work divided as it seemed to be in the grosbeak 

 household. The first day I stayed about the nest I noticed 

 that the father was feeding the children almost entirely, 

 and whenever he brought a mouthful he hardly knew 

 which one to feed first. The mother fed about, once an 

 hour, while he fed every ten or fifteen minutes. This 

 seemed rather contrary to my understanding of bird ways. 

 Generally the male is wilder than his wife and she has to 

 take the responsibility of the home. The next day I 

 watched at the nest conditions were the same, but I was 

 surprised to see that the parental duties were just reversed. 

 The mother was going and coming continually with food, 

 while the father sat about in the tree-tops, sang and 

 preened his feathers leisurely, only taking the trouble to 

 hunt up one mouthful for his bairns to every sixth or 

 seventh the mother brought. To my surprise the third 

 day I found the father was the busy bird again. Out of 

 eighteen plates exposed that day on the grosbeak family 

 I got only five snaps at the mother, and three of these 

 were poor ones. The fourth day I watched, the mother 

 seemed to have charge of the feeding again, but she spent 

 most of her time trying to coax the bantlings to follow 

 her off into the bushes. It was hardly the father's day 

 for getting the meals, but, on the whole, he fed almost as 

 much as the mother, otherwise the youngsters would not 

 have received their daily allowance. I have watched at 

 some nests where the young were cared for almost entirely 

 by the mother, and I have seen others where those duties 

 were taken up largely by the father. Many times I have 

 seen both parents work side ty side in rearing a family, but 



