AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY 



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path ahead of me, with a worm in her mouth. She was going away 

 from her home not towards it. She knew from sad experience that 

 mankind was not to be trusted, and hoped to lead me away from her 

 home in the undergrowth. 



Turning from the beaten path, I almost stepped upon a dear little 

 fellow which had but recently left its arched cave like home among the 

 dead leaves, faint stripes showed upon its crown, and the tiny olive- 

 green wing feathers had appeared; but the rest of its body was still 

 covered with a soft downy coat, which in a few weeks would change to 

 the thrush-like plumage of the mature birds. 



Photo from life bv C. A. Reed. 



YOUNG FIELD SPARROWS. 



Then I noticed a slight movement in some indigo weeds at my right, 

 as a cautious mother slipped away through the bushes, and parting the 

 green sprays, there was a dainty structure of grasses and fibre, its rim 

 encircling four wide opened yellow mouths. From a distant tree a 

 little fellow in olive green with a bright yellow breast streaked on the 

 sides with black, cried in an ascending scale: "see, see, see, see." We 

 saundered on, past a black and white bird wearing a red cap, who 

 with his long straight bill was patiently hammering grubs from a dead 

 tree trunk for his children, who looked well able to care for themselves. 

 We past a scarlet and black beauty, who, with his green mate, was 

 training up his plainly clad young in the way they should go. Past a 

 dainty sprite clad in an entire suit of rich plain blue, who caroled to us 

 of the bulky nest of grass which was swung between the tall stalks of 



