34 



AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY 



feet, all noise ceased, and Jenny immediately began to investigate. 

 Jack, valiant bird, perched at a safe distance, and gave all manner of 

 encouraging notes, and even scolded her for not going at once to the 

 nest, but he himself showed no inclination to do so. Of course it would 

 not do for him to get into danger, for if anything should happen to him, 

 what would become of Mrs. Wren? Jenny approached nearer and nearer 

 the hole, and at last suddenly dashed in. Seeing that nothing unusual 

 happened. Jack took courage and came slipping and sliding down the 

 tree trunk in a ludicrous fashion until finally he stood on top of the nest 

 hole. Peeking in, he gave a querulous call that was immediately an- 

 swered from within. Evidently the response pleased Jack, for he at 

 once launched himself into the air and sailed proudly to the next tree, 

 singing the sweetest melody that he could compose. 



This day I secured six exposures, but the verdict of the dark room al- 

 lowed me but one good negative, that of the male bird standing head 

 downwards, just looking into the nest. The chief difficulty in securing 

 pictures of these birds was not that they were afraid to return to the 

 nest, as is often the case with other birds, but that they were too active. 

 When several of the exposures were made, the birds were moving at 

 such speed that, although the exposure was only one one-hundredth part 

 of a second, the bird showed only as a streak extending across the 

 plate. 



Photo from life. 



On my next visit, several days later, I was surprised to see that^they 

 were apparently repairing the nest. I looked in and — there was not, an 



