NEST BUILDING 289 



before my lens. Several times I have photo- 

 graphed a male bird standing guard on the edge 

 of a nest containing eggs, and once as he entered 

 a nest to brood while his mate went to bathe and 

 drink. 



After lending what assistance they can in nest 

 building, most males select two locations nearby, 

 and when not feeding and exercising they sing to 

 their brooding mates. One indigo bluebird, whose 

 mate brooded in a clump of horse-weeds along the 

 levee between the Wabash and the outlet of the 

 Limberlost, sang so persistently from one stretch 

 of telephone wire nearest his nest that for all of one 

 season, I could take friends from cities there and 

 tell them with all assurance that they would see and 

 hear him. 



It was the persistent singing, from one branch, of 

 a male wood thrush that led me to his location and 

 a series of the affairs of his life. The rose-breasted 

 grosbeak sings morning and evening near his mate, 

 and when he relieves her while she goes for her 

 morning bath and food, he resignedly enters the 

 nest and settles himseh to brood until noon, which 

 is what I meant by calling him a hen-pecked hus- 

 band. Most male grosbeaks can be found brood- 

 ing every morning between nine and twelve. I have 

 recorded this repeatedly. 



If a dove does not brood on his eggs, he spends 

 hours brooding beside his mate, as near her as he 

 can crowd. Bobolinks keep close to their mates. 



