WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 



201 



fed and guarded both them and the mother, coming to 

 the nest every two or three minutes with butterflies in 

 his bill. But as soon as they are ready to try their 

 wings, he assumes full charge, teaching them to fly and 

 to catch insects on the wing in true flycatcher fashion. 



Two, and occasionally three, broods are raised in a 

 season. No sooner has the father fairly launched the 

 young on the world 

 than the industrious 

 little mother repairs 

 the nest, and in it 

 lays a second set of 

 pretty white eggs. 

 Again she broods for 

 fourteen days, now 

 seldom or never fed 

 by her mate; but, 

 since the days grow warmer, 

 leaving oftener and for longer 

 intervals to forage for her- 

 self. When the second 

 family is ready to fly, she ^^J^^rumsiutu mother repairs 



takes charge of it unless the 



necessity of rearing a third brood should compel her to 

 desert them; and then, from somewhere, the hitherto 

 unnoticed male appears, to assume care of them. It is 

 a mooted question whether any bird rears three broods 

 in one year, and this is the only species for which I 

 make the claim. While the same pairs usually return 

 each year to the same locality to nest, some instances 



457. Say Phcebe. 



