209 



They are among the easiest of birds to photograph while 

 they are sitting upon the nest. Several times I have remov- 

 ed leaves from above the bird, put a camera in place and 

 made photographs without disturbing her ; they sometimes 

 have allowed me also to gently stroke their back, without 

 leaving the eggs. They seem to be very popular with that 



Fig. 178. / advanced until the lens ivas within i' feet of her 

 and she half rose from the eggs. 



bird-parasite, the Cowbird, for about twenty-five per cent. 

 of the nests found contain one or more eggs of this species. 



Although Sir Chestnut-side leaves the task of making the 

 nest almost wholly to his mate, he takes his turn at sitting 

 on the eggs and, in almost every case that I have watched, 

 does more than his share in feeding the little ones. With 

 most birds that I have photographed, it has been the female 

 that returned first after the battery of cameras was trained 

 on the nest, but with Chestnut-sides it has always been the 

 male which showed the way. 



It was several years before I was able to secure anj^ pic- 

 tures of the parent birds feeding their little ones. Nearly 



U 



