82 



Bird -Lore 



The mother was brooding when I took a look at the displaced bough 

 one hour and a half after its removal from the tree, and next day at about 

 noon the young were being fed on the average of once every two minutes. 

 Inspection and cleaning went on with the utmost regularity, and the male 



CHEBEC ABOUT TO BROOD, AFTER HAVING FED AND INSPECTED HER YOUNG 

 Photographed with full lens and in 1-25 second, but with other conditions similar to those of 



following figure 



brought food while his mate brooded or stood astride the nest with half - 

 spread, drooping wings to ward off the heat. 



The tent was pitched before this nest on July i , but being engaged 

 in studying other birds at the time, I spent but part of two days in watch- 

 ing the nesting scenes. Notwithstanding the high wind on the first day, 

 which kept the tent flapping like the sails of a vessel at sea, and every leaf 

 and twig in motion, the mother came to the bough promptly, and served 

 the first meal to her young in exactly twenty minutes from the moment 

 the tent was closed. Again they were fed in a very short space, and in the 

 thirty-four minutes which followed, during which I remained continuously 

 in the tent, from 9.16 to 9.50 A. M., the young were fed with small in- 

 sects twenty-two times. The incisive chebec of the male sounded inces- 

 santly from a neighboring apple tree, while at this juncture the female did 

 all the work. At each visit the young rose up in the nest, displayed their 

 bright orange -yellow throats, and chirped briskly, producing a kind of rolling 

 chitter or seething chorus of sounds. The four swayed about from side to 



