BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
237 
the impetuous attacks of the enraged owners. We have been aware of 
this fondness for eggs for many years, but the carnivorous propensity, 
which is doubtless the outgrowth of the other, has been observed by us 
frequently since 1876. Where the birds dwell together in well-regulated 
societies, there is no desire to interfere with their neighbors of different 
family-connections who choose to take up their abodes within their terri- 
tory. These assaults are always made by their less social brethren whose 
selfish projjensities lead them to pass comparatively isolated lives. 
In die selection of a nesting-tree very little time is wasted, the birds 
mostly visiting the same neighborhood year after year where not interfered 
with. The building of a home is a labor of more moment, and generally 
lequires the united efforts of both sexes for a period of six days. The 
birds are diligent mechanics, and confine their operations to certain hours 
of the day, chiefly in the cool of the morning and late in the afternoon. 
The process of building being remarkably slow, the materials have time to 
dry out in a great measure when the female is ready to lay. Where the 
materials are somewhat free from mud, which sometimes happens, oviposi- 
don commences on the day following the completion of the structure. 
Otherwise three or four days necessarily elapse before this business is 
assumed. The eggs are laid one at a time on each consecutive day. 
Incubation immediately follows, and is the sole work of the female for 
sixteen days. The male contributes his part to the success of the weari- 
some undertaking by providing her with nourishment. At other times, he 
IS in the immediate neighborhood, and warns her of danger. Should the 
nest be approached, the female glides out of it, and seeks, with the assist- 
ance of her partner, by loud clamors and angry gestures, to drive the 
intruder away. So venturesome do they become, that they have been seen 
to fly close to the head of an assailant, as though with fury-darting eyes 
and wide-open jaws they intended to resent the insult. Where the olfender 
has been one in feathered dress, we have known several pairs to come to 
the^ assistance of their besieged friends, when the utmost confusion and 
excitement would prevail. Such is the bravery often displayed, in en- 
