AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



263 



Photo from life. 



OUT IN THE WIDE WIDE WORLD. 



tree, and then hopping spirally upward from bough to bough around 

 the trunk, creeps out along the branch, reaching the nest usually from 

 the rear, as it were, thus avoiding the observation of her enemies. 

 These birds are almost constantly busy in feeding their young and 

 cleaning the nest, and to one who will watch them for a few days, 

 Dr. Brewers statement that a family of Jays consumes a million cater- 

 pillars in a season will not seem incredible. The four young in this 

 nest were not quite fledged at the time they were visited by the artist 

 (June 10) and they were always hungry. In the picture of the nest 

 three of them have their heads up and their open mouths turned toward 

 their devoted parent. The other no doubt, is swallowing the food 

 that has just been given him. The next picture gives a slightly 

 closer view of the same young birds on a branch, apparently searching 

 the blue arch of the heavens for more food. In their callow youth 

 they will bite greedily at anything, and there is little that comes amiss 

 to them in their more mature years. These little fellows were taken 

 from the nest and perched on the limb where they remained without 

 manifesting any fear and what was still more remarkable, the parents 

 on their perches in the near by trees evinced no alarm and uttered no 

 complaint. They conversed quietly with each other aside, as if they 

 should say "These are some of our people from the farmhouse. Let's 

 not say a word. Perhaps they will take the job of feeding the children 

 off our hands for the rest of the day." As we replaced the young in 

 the nest the old birds immediately bestirred themselves and began 

 feeding them. The young grew rapidly, and on June 15th they went 

 out into the wide, wide world. Owing to lack of time and space we 

 must defer the remainder of this chronicle to another issue. 



Edward Howe Forbush. 



