l62 



AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



■quarter of his size, had brought. When she would fly off for more food 

 for him, he would follow and be on hand with his piteous appeals for 

 more. As this was during the last of August and the young cowbird 

 showed no signs of helping himself to food, it looked as though this 

 poor Chipping Sparrow has a life work in the task of feeding one use- 

 less bird. Perhaps cowbirds are of more value to mankind than they 

 appear to be, for it is certain that their young, on account of their vor- 

 acity, cause the insect eating foster parents to destroy a great many 

 more insects than they otherwise would for the needs of their own 

 iDrood. 



V. On June 27th a Chipping Sparrow was seen flying through a small 

 growth of pines. This was nothing unusual, but as she had food in her 



Fig. 4. 



Photo from life by C. A. Reed. 



AN ANTIDOTE FOR HUNGER. 



bill she was under observation until she disappeared in the top of a low 

 pine. The voices of the young could be. plainly heard coming from the 

 same place, but so well was the nest concealed by the numerous need- 

 les that several trips around the tree failed to reveal it. Parting the 

 needles at the top, we opened to view the pretty scene of a mother 

 Chippy and her family of four. Even though we had interrupted them 

 at breakfast, they showed no anger, but seemed to regard us with as 

 much curiosity as we did them. It is a strange fact that this pair of 

 birds nesting as they did over a half mile from the nearest house, should 

 have been tamer and shown less fear of the camera than did a pair which 

 nested in a public park where thousands passed within three feet of the 

 nest every day. 



They were a bright looking lot of little ones, reared in this Cozy and 

 secure home, where the sunlight filtered down through the same need- 

 les which protected them from the breeze which always swept across 



