132 Bird- Lore 
side, that it seemed certain of discovery by any one passing that way. In 
a stay of ten minutes, I did not see the bird again. 
My next visit was on June 21. From this date until July 6, 
I made trips every few days, spending from three-quarters of an 
hour to four hours or more near the nest, each time. How rich 
and varied would have been such observations about the nest 
of a Wren, a Robin or some Warbler, or any of a hundred others 
of our common birds! And how comparatively little of real 
insight did they yield in the case of these uncanny birds! 
At first, I usually found one of the old birds on the nest, and 
occasionally when the young were several days old. The eggs 
hatched between June 22 and 24. On the 20th both old birds — 
came about, and remained within several yards of me for the 
forty-five minutes that I spent sitting twenty- 
five feet from the nest. The young would 
“beg” for food when I shook the bushes about 
their nest; and, as they stretched up their heads, I could 
see the broken egg-shells under them. The following day 
I found only the female about. She called now and then, 
as usual since my first visit, but no mate appeared, though a 
Cuckoo did occasionally call somewhere at a distance. Half an hour 
went by, then an hour, and I had given him up for killed. Finally a 
Cuckoo came, and swooped gently at the female perched in a locust 
tree. He alighted on the branch she had left just in time to escape 
him. There he stood, with slowly rising and falling tail, the other . 
bird being a yard or two in front, he raised his tail beautifully 
expanded. There was no attempt at pursuit, not a flutter nor a note; in 
a few minutes the late comer sailed down over some bushes, and so out of 
sight, as quietly as he had made his appearance on the scene. The sexes are 
indistinguishable in the field, but I felt sure which was which in this apparent 
courting scene. 
Two days later, one of the Cuckoos flew up from the bushes about the 
nest, and, still I found a Cuckoo occupying 
the latter. The suggestive scene in the locust 
at once occurred to me, and I hoped to see, 
after all, an instance of that remarkable 
anomaly, well known with Cuckoos, of 
young birds and fresh eggs in the nest together. 
From my accustomed seat eight or ten yards 
away, I watched the sitter, patiently waiting for her to quit the nest. In the 
meantime, the bird which had flown from near the nest had at once proceeded 
to dress his feathers, as if he had been sitting—as, for aught I know, he had. 
I have seen Waxwings sitting “tandem”’ on their eggs in cold weather. 
Seve 
