The Chebec's First Brood 83 



side as one bird, until the intensity of their emotion was relieved by a small 

 dragonfly or moth, or by any insect which these expert flycatchers chanced 

 to spy and snap up on the wing. Inspection followed each feeding with 

 the usual precision, and the excreta was often taken and removed to a dis- 

 tance from the nest. 



When the feeding and inspection were over, if the heat were excessive, 

 the mother would stand astride, spread her wings over the youngsters and 

 remain in this position with crest erect and often with the mouth agape 

 for five or ten minutes at a time. Then of a sudden she is off; her eye 

 is keen, and her aim is sure; with a snap the mandibles close over the 

 helpless insect, and rapidly describing a graceful loop in the air, this bird 

 is at the nest again with the prey. If you showed yourself outside the 

 tent, both birds would flit about excitedly, erecting crests, pumping tails, 

 turning heads from side to side and sounding their chebecs or chicks with 

 renewed emphasis, but would return to their accustomed duties the moment 

 you disappeared beneath the screen. 



The next day being still hotter, the young were brooded almost con- 

 stantly until twelve minutes past noon, before they got a morsel of food. 

 The timidity of the male was most marked, for he rarely came to the nest 

 when the tent was before it. Although the parental instincts are com- 

 monly stronger in the female, this is not always the case. In a family of 

 Bluebirds which I studied last summer the male was not only fearless but 

 pugnacious to a remarkable degree. Shooting from his lofty perch straight 

 at every intruder, with loud and angry snapping of the bill, he would make 

 the boldest person involuntarily duck his head. 



Another brood was successfully reared in a tree at the top of the hill. 

 Incubation began about June 7, the young were hatched by the 20th, and 

 were on the wing by July 5. 



During the past summer I have taken special precautions for the safety of 

 the young, and added a number of improvements or refinements to the gen- 

 eral method, only one of which can be mentioned here. The nest, with its 

 supports, when removed and set up in a favorable position for study, should 

 be protected by a screen of fine wire netting three or four feet in height 

 and pinned to the ground with wire staples. It is better to allow a strip 

 to hang more or less free from the top. The reader should not trust too 

 confidently the remark in 'The Home Life of Wild Birds' that cats and 

 other predaceious animals look upon the displaced nest as a trap and studi- 

 ously avoid it, for other animals get accustomed to new conditions as do 

 the birds, and no nest of young is ever absolutely safe. The net may be 

 trusted to debar the cat, the most fatal and persistent of the many enemies 

 of nestlings in the neighborhood of towns ; it discourages the squirrel 

 whose pickings and stealings are far from unimportant, and tends to deter 

 the more suspicious Crow and Jay. 



