A Yellow-throat Family 



197 



The male was still shy. At eleven o'clock I left the tent but returned iifteen 

 minutes later. Both birds were scolding anxiously when I entered again. I 

 did not see them go to the nest up to noon when I left for lunch. When I 

 again returned to the tent, I found the male carrying a small insect. Ten 

 minutes later both birds went to the nest at once. The female remained to 

 clean the nest. Soon the male was back again with more food. Now for three 

 hours the birds came regularly and apparently without fear. As I look over 

 my notes, it all comes back to me; the hot sun filtering through the tent, the 

 stifling air, my cramped legs, the rickety soap-box on which I sat, the busy 

 trips of the birds, and the constantly decreasing pile of unexposed plate holders. 



In three hours the male made fifteen visits and the female six; an average 

 of one visit every eight and a half minutes. The food consisted of small moths, 

 spiders, grasshoppers, soft brown grubs, green worms and some insects too 

 small to be identified. The nest was cleaned on the average of once every half 

 hour. This operation occurred more frequently as the parents became accus- 

 tomed to the presence of the tent. Both birds shared equally in this task. 

 The sacs of excrement were carried away in the birds' bills. Often the female 

 would stand on inspection for fully five minutes, if unrewarded leaving only 

 when her mate made his next visit. Several times I saw her pick at the plum- 

 age of the young as though trying to remove lice. In going to and from the 

 nest the birds communicated with one another by low twitters. Occasionally 

 the male paused in his work to give a faint song. 



On one occasion the male fed two of the young. Before he had left, the 

 female arrived with an insect. He held his bill toward her as though wishing 

 to take the food from her. Not heeding him she proceeded to feed the young 

 one last favored by the male. Quickly her mate removed the food from the 

 young one's mouth and thrust it into the bill of the third young one, which had 

 received nothing. This would make it appear that the parent birds do actually 

 keep some account of which young they have last fed. In the case of another 

 species, however, I have known one young to be fed six times to his brother's- 

 once. Another time both parents arrived at the nest at the same time. Having 

 fed the young, the female reached into the depths of the nest and brought forth 

 a large sac of excrement. The male promptly seized it and tried to take it 

 from her. What the result would have been I do not know, for just then the 

 shutter clicked and they flew away. 



The next day I found the feathers of the young ones had developed greatly. 

 The sheaths were almost all gone and the little birds were covered with a coat 

 of soft feathers; greenish brown above, buffy beneath. They were now eight 

 days old. I photographed them without taking them from the nest. Two 

 days later they were gone, but the anxious calls of the parents told me that 

 they were safely hidden away somewhere in the shadow of the old fence-row. 



