WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 265 



with the sunlight bringing out the strong contrasts in his 

 plumage, and his little brown throat swelling with music ; 

 or, in masculine awkwardness, he tries to cover the eggs 

 while his mate is enjoying a vacation. Nearly half of the 

 daylight hours he takes her place, but at night it is the 

 mother who broods. Often when the female has been 

 gone a long time he calls her, coaxingly, querulously, and 

 at last imperatively, but I have never seen him leave until 

 she had returned. This constant care enables the Gros- 

 beaks to defend their brood from the feathered kidnap- 

 pers ; and it is very necessary, for the nests are exposed 

 to view from above. After a rest, when the mother has 

 come to the nest again and settled herself comfortably 

 with much turning and fluffing of feathers, she often 

 indulges in a sweet, warbling soliloquy, — a faint imita- 

 tion of her mate's brilliant song, but so low as to be 

 inaudible at any great distance from the tree. 



The little Grosbeaks look like over-sized sparrow babies, 

 covered at first only with a sparse hair-like down on 

 crown and shoulders and afterwards feathering out in soft 

 shades of brown. The bill is wide, rather than swollen, 

 and both it and the tottery legs are pale straw color. 



From watching the adults gather insects for the young, 

 I am confident that so long as they remain in the nest, 

 they are fed upon an animal diet, and for the first few 

 days by regurgitation. In a little less than two weeks 

 they hop out onto the small branches, and by instinct are 

 soon pecking at every green thing in sight. For some 

 time they seem to keep with the adults, being fed and 

 guarded tenderly by them. 



