The Chebec's First Brood 81 



original support to another and afterwards moved to a greater distance, 

 unhappily encountered a thunderstorm which killed one of the young and 

 threatened to destroy the whole brood. Wind and rain, as every student 

 of birds knows, play sad havoc with eggs and nestlings, but the destruction 

 wrought by sudden and violent storms is well-nigh incredible. I have seen 

 a Chebec's nest which had suffered from this cause, and found two of the 

 young lying dead on the ground below, although the supporting bough was 

 unusually firm. Mr. Hoffmann's birds evidently had not fully adopted the 

 new site when the storm came; and in such a case, if one is fortunate in 

 being near the spot, he can do no better than follow his example and re- 

 turn the nest and branch to its original position, or to a convenient place of 



shelter. 



Whatever means we adopt to study birds, we should try to help rather 

 than hamper them in the battle for life, and we deserve little credit if we 

 can only say that we have introduced no greater dangers than already exist. 

 Let us rather aim to lessen the dangers which surround every nest of wild 

 birds whenever possible, and this can usually be accomplished by a simple 

 means to be described later. 



The nest, which was watched for nearly a month and is shown in the 

 photographs, had slightly incubated eggs on June 9- The female would 

 sometimes hold her place until your hand was dangerously near, and then 

 go off quietly, or dart at your head with audible snapping of the bill, and 

 give her sharp-, protesting chebec! chebec! The scenes at a Chebec's nest 

 are never very exciting: their life follows a well-defined routine which pos- 

 sibly seems more mechanical than it really is. Though small in stature, 

 obscure in dress, and possessed of no song, this Flycatcher can at least 

 boast of clean-cut, unmistakable call-notes. 



Eleven days later, at 3.15 P. M., a young bird had just hatched and was 

 still wet, the egg-shells having been promptly removed. At least twenty- 

 four hours elapsed before the three others appeared. 



This nest was taken down at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of June 29, 

 according to the plan which I have followed for the past three summers, 

 and have fully described in ' The Home Life of Wild Birds.' The weather 

 which followed was the most unfavorable I have ever known at that 

 period of summer, intense heat and sultriness streaked with rain, lasting 

 with scarcely a break well into July. At this time the first bird to hatch 

 was exactly nine days old. Notwithstanding the drawbacks and the some- 

 what conspicuous position of the nesting bough, which attracted many per- 

 sons, who came out of curiosity to take a look at the little birds, everything 

 went as well as could be wished. The young took flight on July 5. life at 

 the nest having lasted exactly two weeks, and for at least eleven days longer, 

 true to their custom of cultivating a small plot of ground, they remained 

 close to the original site when not in the old roof-tree itself. 



