12 AMERICAN OENITHOLOGY. 



by them the year before, after a long and desperate siege, in which the 

 parents bravely defended their home and drove down the mauraders 

 time after time as they attempted to reach the nest. All the nests that 

 I found this year were at the end of small boughs in moderately small 

 trees standing somewhat alone, and always in the neighborhood of a 

 bare, dead tree, where the female liked to take her exercise during the 

 period of incubation, in full sight of her precious charge. Here she 

 would sometimes linger, uttering her anxious cry note of "puttery" 

 always trying to scold away the observer till the male came and drove 

 her back to the nest. I never saw him share in the task of incubation^ 

 but otherwise he was a model of gallantry and devotion. After flitting 

 about in a circle from tree to tree, where the sight of his brilliant 

 golden breast and scarlet head flashing among the dark green of the 

 firs, and the cheery note of his song, must have enlivened the long 

 hours for his quiet, yellow and green mate, he would fly to her and they 

 would exchange some words of endearment in an undertone, that 

 sounded like "coy-coy" or "qui-qui." Once she could not bear to have 

 him leave her so soon again and called him back. He immediately 

 returned and brought her a fly which he caught on the way. This love 

 talk seems to be developed from the baby talk of the race. The youug 

 beg in the prettiest manner, saying or rather singing, "kyriot-kur-i-e, 

 kuri-e-e" in such musical tone that it sounds like a fully developed song 

 of some other species. This is gradually shortened and softened into 

 "coo-ee," "coy," or "qui," and then used as the confidential language 

 of the mated birds. Day after day I watched the little cavalier with 

 his pretty attentions to his lady, not attempting to get a nearer view of 

 the light blue eggs, specked with brown, which I could almost see 

 through the bottom of the slightly built nest. On July 21st a change 

 came. When her mate appeared with an insect, the female slipped off 

 and disappeared, instead of waiting to be fed. The father, for so he 

 now was, paused on the edge of the nest, admiring his new born off- 

 spring, and then very carefully administered the worm. After this 

 there was very little time for singing. Both parents kept very close to 

 the nest, not feeding so often as some birds do, but keeping a very 

 sharp lookout for enemies. On the ninth day as I neared the nest tree, 

 the female came to meet me, talking excitedly, and kept this up for 

 about an hour, but never went near the nest. Later in the day I found 

 the whole family re-united in a grove of tamaracks very close to where 

 I was camping, and here for some weeks, I could watch the pretty 

 ways of the young birds at my leisure. The male very rarely sang 

 now, but the note of the young ones, as they sat high up in the pines, 

 constantly begging, was almost as musical as a song Like little 



