AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 275 



how well behaved they were while sitting on the edge of a large stone 

 where he placed them while he repaired the damage that he had 

 unwittingly done. A flat stone was carefully placed over the roomy 

 cavity and dirt packed on top of that so as to render it inconspicious 

 and then it was much more secure than it was as the birds had left it; 

 the birds were then released one at a time at the entrance of the 

 tunnel and safely found their way home. 



We found that they were still at home when we visited the place a 

 week later armed with cameras and paraphernalia for making pictures. 

 Before looking at the little ones the camera was placed on a rock within 

 about five feet of the entrance and carefully focussed. It was then 

 covered with a gray cloth so as to have the same general color and 

 shape as the surrounding stones, and a long rubber tubing was run to 

 a sheltering clump of bushes about t'-venty yards in front. 



A few minutes after we had comfortably seated ourselves in the 

 ambush, a warning rattle was heard from the bed of the brook and soon 

 this was repeated from the edge of the woods close to us. Guided by 

 the sound we soon located her perched oa one of the lower branches of 

 an oak, and as we had expected, with a small fish in her beak. That 

 she was suspicious was easily seen by the anxious and frequent rattlings 

 and the curious bobbing up and down of her tail, much like the charac- 

 teristic motion of the Spotted Sandpiper. It was clear that she saw 

 that an addition had been made to Ihe landscape about her home and 

 she did not relish the change, but as she steadily watched it and saw 

 that it did not move or show signs of life, her fears were allayed. At 

 times she would turn the fish about in her bill and once, at least, tossed 

 it in the air and deftly caught it again in a new position. Finally she 

 darted towards the small hole in the bank, but much to my surprise,, in- 

 stead of stopping on one of the several twigs about the entrance, she 

 dashed right in without a pause and as I was not prepared to take mov- 

 ing pictures I let her go trusting to get her image on the plate when 

 she came out. She remained within her house about three minutes 

 and then suddenly her tail feathers appeared in the doorway and she 

 had darted out with the speed of light. 



We waited for her to come back and feed her young three times and 

 each time she entered without a pause, fed her charges and then 

 backed out of the tunnel, which was about three feet in length, and flew 

 away so quickly that there was no chance for a satisfactory picture. 

 The one shown was made in one-five hundredths of a second, the bulb 

 being squeezed when the tail feathers came in sight, thus getting her 

 just as she was about to turn to fly. 



When we lifted the stone that served as a roof to their home, we dis- 



