The Audubon Societies 47 



When I stopped one of the Chickadees flew toward me as if he intended 

 to ah'ght on me; but, to my disappointment, he alighted on a bush just 

 back of me. Not to be discouraged, I followed the two Chickadees, and 

 therefore returned to the woods where I had been. Coming to a thicket of 

 pines I stopped, anticipating a better acquaintance with the Chickadee, but 

 again to my disappointment it flew away. Ascending a little higher, where 

 I was not so much surrounded with trees, I saw several Chickadees. The 

 two nearest me were evidently procuring food. Going as near as I thought 

 possible without frightening the birds, I stopped and put two butternuts on 

 my hat, and, holding one in my hand, awaited for the approach of the Chick- 

 adees. Up flew a Chickadee to a dead sumac tree, then on the tree which 

 I was near, and at last on my hat, pecking the nut until he got sufficient 

 food, then flew to a neighboring tree. But ah, thought he, it is so good I 

 will come back and have another taste. This time he came on to my hand, 

 eating part of the nut, flew to a branch and wiped his bill, and then returned 

 to my hand again to say good-bye. I arrived home a little past eleven 

 o'clock. — Ethel R. Barton, Cornish, N. H. 



Confiding Vireos 



One Sunday afternoon in July, as I was getting out of my carriage, I 

 discovered a bird underneath the horse; I picked it up and found it to be a 

 young yellow -breasted Vireo. He was too small to fly, so I took him in 

 the house. 



I fed him a while on potato; then took him out on the piazza. His loud 

 chirping attracted the parents. I put him on my finger, and, after fifteen 

 minutes of patient waiting, the mother bird flew down with a gypsy cater- 

 pillar, which she had taken from the apple tree. She first lit on my shoulder, 

 then on my hand and fed her young. She continued to feed it for three 

 quarters of an hour, when it became so dark I took it in the house and 

 put it in a cage on the piazza roof for over night. 



The next morning when I went to see how it was, I discovered another 

 one of the brood on the roof; and before noon 1 had all four sitting on my 

 finger, with the mother feeding them. The father only fed them once. 



Fourth of July morning my sister and two of my friends each sat with a 

 bird on their finger, while the mother fed them in turn. That night I put 

 them in a tree close by, and the next morning, when I went to look for them, 

 they had flown. — DwiGHT Lewis Fiske (aged, 14 years), Winchester, 

 Mass. 



