BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
43 
when the nest has been stumbled uj^on by some cruel oologist, and the 
female is compelled to abandon it and seek safety in flight, the male does 
not even then desert his hiding-place to come to her i-escue. Everything 
is left to her judgment, and well does she play her role in the drama, 
lly various strategic movements, such as imitating the actions and cries of 
a crippled bird, she decoys the inexperienced intruder to a remote dis- 
tance, when she flings off the veil of hy|30crisy, and rpiickly disa])pears in 
the bushes. With the trained collector this ruse hardly succeeds, and the 
disap 2 )ointed parent often beholds with found sorrow the discovery of 
her nest, and its destruction by ruthless hands. 
AVhen the young are hatched, tliey are watched over with jealous 
care, ami receive more than ordinary attention. Grubs, earthworms, j^lant- 
lice and larvae of butterflies, in immense numbers, are daily gleaned, and 
fed to their hungry appetites. Such are their demands for food, during 
the first week or ten days of existence, that the parents are kept 
extremely busy in catering thereto. Occasionally, both are absent from 
home on this important business, but the rule seems to be for one ijarent 
to keep a watch over it and its heljdess inmates, while the other is thus 
occupied. 
At the age of thirteen or fourteen days, the young quit the nest, and 
receive their first lessons in the mysteries of bird life ; and, in ten days 
more, are forced to shift for themselves, but are permitted, however, to 
remain Avith the parents until the time of the autumnal migration, when 
they help to form the small flocks which are seen Hying southward about 
the middle of October. 
The eggs of this species are four in number, rounded-oval in shape, 
and are covered over the entire surface with dots and blotches of reddish- 
brown upon an obscure grayish, or reddish-white background. In some 
specimens, these dots run into each other; and, in others, they are distinct, 
being more profusely collected about the larger extremity. The average 
measurement of a score of specimens from widely-separated localities is .97 
