is THE WREN. ay 39 
the third egg had not yet hatched, and so of course would not, as 
the parents were no longer sitting on the nest, but were getting food 
for the young. Both birds showed great concern whenever the nest 
was approached, and the male flew back and forth and hovered 
over it uttering his harsh twitter, while the female sat in a bush near 
by. We left Alton Bay before the young were able to fly, which I 
regretted very much. 
The other kingbird’s nest was in a small orchard behind the house. 
It was in an apple tree high up from the ground so I was unable to 
see into it, but it contained young when I first discovered it. These 
kingbirds were watchful over their brood to an extreme degree. 
They not only fed them well, judging from the number of trips 
made to the young, and kept other birds away from the nest, but 
went out of their way to seek trouble as the following will show. 
At the boarding-house lived a cat whose custom it was to bask in 
the morning sun at the back of the house. Although the kingbird’s 
nest was at a safe distance from pussy’s resting place, the presence 
of this cat seemed to disturb the birds. One of them would often 
alight on the clothes line directly above her and give its war cry. 
Every now and then he would dart down with the seeming intention 
of striking her on the head with his bill, but just before he reached 
pussy, he would hover an instant then fly up to the line again utter- 
ing many threats. And pussy, who slept quietly while the bird 
scolded, would look up in sleepy surprise when he darted down at 
her, and when he returned to the line above her, she would settle 
down for another nap. 
Another interesting bird observed at Alton Bay was the Phoebe. 
As is well known the Phoebe’s favorite place for building is under a 
bridge. Over the mouth of the little Merrymeeting River where it 
flows into the bay is a wooden bridge supported by iron beams. For 
the past seven years, which is as far back as my observations go, 
Phoebes have built on the ledges of these iron beams. It is most 
surprising that the birds should build there, as the bridge is much 
frequented; and every time a wagon goes over, a great lot of dust 
falls through into the water, and of course into the nest, and the 
noise is deafening. ‘The bridge is also frequented by people fishing 
at all hours of the day and night. It is very low, so that passing 
under in a boat you can easily reach the nest by standing up. The 
