322 



AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



nest. What a picture they would make if I could but get in readiness 

 "before they flew off. But, no. It was not to be. Just as I was draw- 

 ing the slide, olT they went and not another opportunity did I get to 

 take them at the nest together. On this day, June 18th, I had the nest 

 under observation from 10 a. m., until 1 o'clock, and during that time 

 the young were fed with clock like precision, beginning within less 

 than ten minutes after I had placed the camera and retired. The long- 

 est period during which the adults were absent was seven minutes and 



Fig- 5- 



Photo from life by C. A. Reed. 



ENTERING BY THE BACK DOOR. 



the shortest two minutes. However their time of absence generally 

 varied but a few seconds from five minutes, and the two birds either 

 arrived together or within a minute of each other. One would always 

 wait' on the nest branch just out of the field of view of the camera, 

 while the other fed the young, and immediately hop to the nest when 

 the other flew away. They fed them chiefly on various worms and 

 caterpillars, varied occasionally with dragon flies and small moths. 

 During the three hours I made four exposures to illustrate various atti- 

 tudes, but only two of them were good owing to rapid movement of 

 the young. Fig. 2 shows a number of interesting points. Notice how 

 the male has his bill thrust down the young bird's throat. This is the 



