BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
13 
necessary complement being laid, the female immediately takes the nest, 
and incubation follows. This is her exclusive task for a period of 
twelve or thirteen days. AVhile she is thus engaged, the male stations 
himself close-by the nest, only dei^arting therefrom in quest of food for 
himself and partiier. Should an enemy approach, he assails the intruder 
with commendable fearlessness and boldness. Various snakes, jjarticnlarly 
the black-snake, are their inveterate foes. When an attack is made by 
one of these wily creatures, both j^arents, heedless of danger, often fly 
so close to the assailant as to lose their lives in efforts to prevent the 
nest being ravished and despoiled. But in the case of human depreda- 
tors, knowing that resistance would be futile, they seek to deter them 
from any contemplated sacrilege by the most discordant cries and frantic 
gestures. 
The young are objects of teuderest solicitude. Both parents vie with 
each other in rendering them every needed service. While one is absent 
from home in search of food for their rapacious appetites, the other is 
guarding the nest and its precious charges with the most jealous care. 
Earthworms, spiders, flies, caterpillars of non-irritating properties, together 
Avith such berries as the season affords, are collected in A'ast quantities, 
and fed to these helpless creatures. But as they increase in size and 
age, other articles are added to their voluminous bill of fare. In about 
tAvelve days from the time of hatching, the young are able to quit 
the nest, and in six days more, are ready to be initiated into the 
mysteries of flight. This important duty devolves exclusively upon the 
male parent. 
The eggs are oval in form, of a dark emerahl green color, very 
highly polished, and measure .97 of an inch in length, and .G8 in Avidth. 
There is small chance of confounding this Avith any othei- American bird’s 
eggs — certainly after a s])ecimen has been once seen. Dr. Abbott, as 
quoted by Ernest Ingersoll, once discovered a nest, at Trenton, N. J., 
that contained purely AA’liite eggs, Avhich hatched in due time into perfect 
3 'oung. Similar instances are known in the case of other species laying 
