94 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



arra]]ge before her eggs quickened to bind her to 

 them would drive her from them so long that 

 they would be chilled. So we watched, marvelled, 

 but did nothing. At ten o'clock Thursday the 

 rain ceased, the clouds scattered, the sun shone. 

 From the length of time the robin had remained 

 in the same position during all of those hours of 

 cold drenching and hunger, she staggered when she 

 finally arose in her nest, uttered the robin tribal 

 call, and attempted flight. I was watching, sc 

 I saw her miss the branch of a near-by plum tree 

 and fall among the bushes below. There she 

 gained a footing, rested awhile, and then flew to 

 the branch she had first started toward. After 

 another rest she wavered to earth and ate angle- 

 worms until my next fear for her was that she would 

 burst. While she was feeaing her mate flew down 

 to her and they talked over the situation. I cer- 

 tainly should have been interested in knowing 

 exactly what she said to him. He flew to the edge 

 of the nest and carefully inspected it and the eggs, 

 but even then he did not enter it to brood awhile 

 for her. The mother bird soon went back to her 

 nest. She left it more frequently than usual the 

 •remainder of that day, but the following day she 

 seemed to have recovered from her rough expe- 

 rience. Three eggs of that nest hatched, so that 

 only one bird was lost and I have no proof that 

 it failed to develop on account of the storm. 

 That mother robin stands monumental to me as 



