CHAPTER HI 



DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE BIRDS 



IT IS a privilege to be so situated that one may 

 watch from day to day the occurrences about a 

 wild bird's nest. Here feathered life reaches its 

 greatest heights of emotion, and comedies and threat- 

 ened tragedies are of daily occurrence. The people 

 we know best are those whom we have seen at their 

 play and at their work, in moments of elation and 

 doubt, and in times of great happiness and dire dis- 

 tress. And so it is that he who has followed the 

 activities of a pair of birds through all the joys and 

 anxieties of nest building, brooding, and of caring for 

 th& young, may well lay claim to a close acquaint- 

 anceship with them. 



In watching a nest one will learn, for example, that 

 with most of our small birds both parents engage in 

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