DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED 321 



eggs. Even when on guard duty his sex asserts itself, 

 and the sight of a fat moth tempts him to forsake his 

 post long enough to snap it up. 



When the mother bird returns, she alights near, preens 

 her feathers carefully, answers his note with a twittering 

 chirp, turns the eggs, and settles herself on the nest with 

 many little fussings to make herself comfortable. 



For thirteen days the mother broods while the father 

 bird watches, and then the wonderful bits of bird life in 

 the nest bring another change. Now the male is ever on 

 the wing, catching and bringing food to those hungry 

 pink mouths. At first they are fed by regurgitation, but 

 after the third day large insects are torn apart and given 

 fresh. Fourteen crickets in ten minutes was the record 

 of one busy forager. The watchful male no longer tucks 

 his head under his wings at night, but sleeps with it 

 drawn back between his shoulders, at his post a few feet 

 from the nest. If danger threatens, not only he and the 

 mother bird will defend the nestlings, but their calls will 

 often bring every Kingbird of the neighborhood to the 

 rescue. 



In two weeks the babies have grown so that they 

 overflow the nest, and one balances himself outside. 

 And now his lessons begin. As soon as he has learned 

 to use his wings he is taught to catch his food in the 

 same way in which he must obtain it all his life. I have 

 seen the parent bring a dragonfly or other insect, alight 

 with it opposite above the young bird, and call his atten- 

 tion to it in a peculiar low twitter. Then, when quite 

 ready, he releases the prey, which half falls, half flutters, 



21 



