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Hints to Audjiboii Workers. 



molest or attack any other birds than 

 those which its own instinct prompts it to 

 drive away in self-defense, such as hawks, 

 owls, eagles, crows, jays, cuckoos and 

 grackles." 



It is certainly much commoner to see it 

 quarreling with such birds, but on two suc- 

 cessive days in the latter part of June I saw 

 it chasing a red-headed woodoecker and a 

 bluebird. Indeed, more than half a cen- 

 tury ago Wilson witnessed the same thing, 

 which he thus described: " I have also seen 

 the red-headed woodpecker, while clinging 

 on the rail of a fence, amuse himself with 

 the violence of the kingbird, and play bo- 

 peep with him round the rail, while the 

 latter, highly irritated, made every attempt, 

 as he swept from side to side, to strike 

 him, but in vain." 



In regard to its animosity toward the 

 purple martin. Dr. Brewer says: ".The 

 purple martin is said to be the implacable 

 enemy of the kingbird, and one of the few 

 birds with which the latter maintains an 

 unequal contest. Its superiority in flight 

 gives the former great advantages, while its 

 equal courage and strength render it more 

 than a match. Audubon relates an in- 

 stance in which the kingbird was slain in 

 one of these struggles." 



But whatever may be the exact limit of 

 his quarrelsomeness, it stops short of home; 

 old kingbirds certainly are very tender 

 guardians of their young. 



This summer the children of a neighbor- 

 ing hamlet showed me a nest in an old 

 apple tree, and one of the boys climbed up 

 to find out what it was made of. It was 

 empty then, but the young had not left the 

 tree, and the poor father and mother were 

 in the greatest distress. They circled about 

 overhead, and their harsh cries, louder 

 and more piercing than ever, were pitiful 

 to hear. Poor creatures! It was no fault 

 of theirs that they could not tell the dif- 

 erence between a robber and a boy in search 

 of knowledge. They saw a boy climbing up 



to their nest, close by their little ones. It 

 was enough to terrify the bravest bird. 



Think what a time they had had deciding 

 that this branch was the best in all the 

 orchard for their nest; how hard they had 

 worked picking up pieces of dead grass and 

 fastening them together for the outside; 

 what a hunt they had had for stray horse- 

 hairs to soften the roots they used for lin- 

 ing; then, when it was done, think of the 

 long days in which the patient mother had 

 sat brooding over the five pretty white eggs, 

 of whose dark speckles she was so proud. 

 How she had talked to her fond husband 

 about the wee birds that at last broke 

 through the shell and opened their mouths 

 for flies. Then think how busy and anxious 

 the old birds were kept getting food enough 

 for the hungry youngsters; what hard work 

 it was to find anything in the long rainy 

 days when there were no insects in the air. 

 How the mother staid on the nest in the 

 worst thunderstorms and kept her little 

 ones dry, though the blinding lightning 

 threatened to splinter the tree; think what 

 frights she had sitting there all alone dark 

 nights, when cats and owls came prowling 

 about after her children, and how either she 

 or the father bird always had to keep watch 

 in the day time to drive off the squirrels, 

 blackbirds, hawks and owls that came to 

 look for them. Think of all these things 

 and remember how fond they were of their 

 pretty babies; how distressed by the dan- 

 gers that threatened them, and you can 

 understand their fright when they saw us — 

 great murderous giants as they took us to 

 be — coming straight to the place where 

 they were hiding their darlings. 



But when they were flying about most 

 wildly and screaming the loudest, the little 

 birds, who were the cause of all this anxiety, 

 sat among the leaves, erect and stolid, ap- 

 parently indifferent to the cries of their 

 father and mother, as well as to the fact that 

 their white breasts were betraying their 

 whereabouts. Perhaps it was the result of 



