2 BIRD STORIES FROM BURROUGHS 



of the female. She brings all the material and 

 does all the -work of building, he looking on and 

 encouraging her with gesture and song. He acts 

 also as inspector of her work, but I fear is a very- 

 partial one. She enters the nest with her bit of 

 dry grass or straw, and, having adjusted it to 

 her notion, withdraws and waits near by while he 

 goes in and looks it over. On coming out he ex- 

 claims very plainly, " Excellent ! excellent ! " and 

 away the two go again for more material. 



I was much amused one summer day in seeing 

 a bluebird feeding her young one in the shaded 

 street of a large town. She had captured a cicada 

 or harvest-fly, and, after bruising it awhile on 

 the ground, flew with it to a tree and placed it 

 in the beak of the young bird. It was a large 

 morsel, and the mother seemed to have doubts 

 of her chick's ability to dispose of it, for she stood 

 near and watched its efforts with great solicitude. 

 The young bird struggled valiantly with the ci- 

 cada, but made no headway in swallowing it, 

 when the mother took it from him and flew to 

 the sidewalk, and proceeded to break and bruise 

 it more thoroughly. Then she again placed it in 

 his beak, and seemed to say, " There, try it now," 

 and sympathized so thoroughly with his efforts 

 that she repeated many of his motions and con- 

 tortions. But the great fly was unyielding, and, 



