BIRD LEGEND AND LIFE 



Now that they were strong enough and sufficiently equipped 

 with feathers to enter life in the great outside world, they 

 were beginning to show the fear that would be their greatest 

 protection when they reached the ground and had to take 

 care of themselves. The trustful innocence of their baby- 

 hood was gone, and the bravery of older robinhood had not 

 yet come to take its place. But however much they might 

 fear the dangers outside, the nest was no longer large enough 

 to hold them. 



Fortunately, it was the two larger ones who were first 

 crowded over the edge to the ground below. It was not such 

 a fearsome thing, after all — this being on the ground, for 

 their ever-watchful father was there to take them in charge 

 and to lead them to a place of greater safety, whUe the mother 

 devoted her energies to the babes still in the nest. Soon the 

 hour struck for them to depart from the adobe home, and 

 they, too, sought the ground. 



The days that followed were the most anxious and try- 

 ing for the older members of the family. Not only did every 

 mouthful of food have to be hunted and pursued in its ef- 

 forts to escape, but the fledglings did also. This terrible 

 fear that had lately come upon them prompted them to hide 

 away in tall grasses or under leaves and bushes. The faint- 

 est sound caused them to seek shelter, where their elders 

 found them crouching in fright. 



After a few days the father took entire charge of them, 

 while the mother prepared another nest of yesteryear, in an 

 apple tree over the way, for a second brood. The little ones 

 roosted on convenient boughs in the near neighborhood for 

 a time, but after a while, when their wings were plumed for 

 longer flights, they spent the night with their father and 

 many others of his kind at a roost down near the river, while 



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