88 Bird -Lore 



the nest, hopping from twig to twig among the shrubs, and I spent several 

 anxious days and nights, fearing they would be appropriated by the neigh- 

 bor's cat. They grew very fast, and by the next day they could hop along 

 the ground in a lively manner. That evening, while we were sitting on 

 the piazza just at dusk, a small gray thing apparently rolled down the 

 wallc; upon investigation it proved to be one of those refractory children 

 starting out to explore the world. I picked it up and put it to bed in 

 a strawberry basket on some soft grass -clippings. It was very wide 

 awake, and I had to keep my hand over it until darkness and warmth 

 quieted it, and its head went behind its wing. I then tied the basket 

 carefully to the railing near the nest, and at four the next morning the 

 little thing was sitting on the edge of the basket calling for breakfast. 

 On June 28, the father reappeared. I came upon him suddenly when 

 they were consulting in the bushes. Apparently he had shirked all the 

 hardest work and had come around for the fun. However that may be, 

 the next morning he and Mrs. Indigo coaxed the little ones safely ofi 

 into the higher trees, and that was the last we saw of them; but a friend 

 living an eighth of a mile away said she had apparently the same family 

 in her trees the next week. 



NEST AND EGGS OF CATBIRD 



(Englewood, N. J., June i;, 1898) 



