Sept., 1907 



TWO STUDIES IN BLUE 



127 



thought they had left for good. Then one morning I saw the mother enter the 

 house again and the father was there too, perched on the wire. He was more at- 

 tentive than formerly. The next day I found a fresh &gg in the nest. They had 

 returned to raise a new family. 



There were only three eggs in the second setting, and all hatched. The two 

 young birds of the first brood followed the father about while the mother was sit- 

 ting. Then when the mother began feeding her second family, I made some in- 

 teresting observations. Her older children began following her about to hunt food, 

 and to my surprise, I saw 

 one of them bring some worms 

 and after the mother fed, 

 the young bluebird went into 

 the box and fed her small 

 brothers and sisters. After 

 that I watched closely and 

 often saw the birds of the 

 first brood feed the little ones 

 of the second brood. Per- 

 haps the two birds of the first 

 brood were girls and took 

 readily to housework. They 

 may have been learning for 

 the next season when they 

 themselves expected to have 

 homes. 



One of the young birds was 

 very enthusiastic in helping 

 her mother. Several times 

 when the latter brought food, 

 the young bird flew at her 

 and tried to take the morsel 

 she had in her mouth, as if 

 saying: "Let me feed the 

 children." And twice I saw 

 the mother yield and let her 

 older child feed the younger 

 ones. It was a very pretty 

 bit of bird life to watch these 

 bluebirds. We were anxious 

 to get a photograph of the 

 mother and the young bird 



helping her. We tried by getting on top of the house and focusing the camera 

 on the wire where the birds often alighted. We finally got one view of the two 

 as the young bird was just in the act of jumping for the worm the mother held. 



Portland, Oregon. 



MALE WESTERN BLUEBIRD AT NEST-HOLE IN APPLE TREE 



