TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 315 



featherless wrens. At no time while I was in the 

 vicinity had the wren visited these little ones." 



Of all our birds, the wren seems the most over- 

 flowing with life and activity. Probably in this in- 

 stance it had stuffed its own young to repletion, 

 when its own abtivity bubbled over into the nest of 

 its neighbor. It is well known that the male wren 

 frequently builds what are called "cock-nests." It 

 is simply so full of life and joy and of the propa- 

 gating instinct, that after the real nest is completed, 

 and while the eggs are being laid, it gives vent to 

 itself in constructing these sham, or cock-nests. I 

 have found the nest of the long-billed marsh wren 

 surrounded by half a dozen or more of these make- 

 believers. The gushing ecstatic nature of the bird 

 expresses itself in this way. 



I have myself known but one instance of a bird 

 lending a hand in feeding young not its own. This 

 instance is to be set down to the credit of a female 

 English sparrow. A little "chippie" had on her 

 hands the task of supplying the wants of that 

 horseleech, young cow-bunting. The sparrow looked 

 on from its perch a few yards away, and when the 

 " chippie " was off looking up food, it would now and 

 then bring something and place it in the beak of 

 the clamorous bunting. I think the "chippie" ap- 

 preciated its good offices. Certainly its dusky foster- 

 child did. This bird, when young, seems the most 

 greedy of all fledgelings. It cries "More," "More," 

 incessantly. When its foster parent is a small bird 

 like " chippie" or one of the warblers, one would 



