180 LAND BIRDS 



her stretch each little leg in its pantalette of feathers and 

 give a few preliminary wing flaps, as if so relieved to be 

 out of that dark hole and into the free air once more. 

 But she is hungry, and soon flits down through the low 

 shrubs to hunt grasshoppers or small lizards, while her 

 mate goes into the nest to brood. He does not always 

 do this, I am told, but in the case of one brood I watched 

 the male took his turn on the eggs each night and morn- 

 ing. I judged him to be a male bird from his trimmer 

 appearance and long absence from home during the day- 

 light hours, which he spent largely in eating. Often he 

 Would perch on the top of the nest shrub and fluff out 

 all his feathers in a sun-bath, until he looked like a minia- 

 ture porcupine. This was his favorite place to breakfast 

 also, but I never saw him eat there during the brightest 

 hours of the day. These he spent in the shady depths 

 of the old pine tree. 



When the young were hatched, — - eighteen days after 

 the first eggs were laid, — they were covered with a 

 cottony down of a soft mouse-color, merging to whitish 

 on under parts, the funniest little puff-ball nestlings 

 imaginable, in size not larger than a walnut. Grass- 

 hoppers and various kinds of insects were carried to 

 them by both parents throughout the day. At night the 

 mother remained in the nest while the male hid in the 

 thick foliage of the pine, but with the sun's first ray both 

 were astir hunting breakfast for the hungry babies. 



