THE FAMILIAR BIRDS 



than other birds do go back. The nest is in no sense a 

 home, but a nursery for a brief period. Most of our 

 birds who bring off a second brood build a second 

 nest, though a robin will occasionally re-line and 

 otherwise patch up an old nest. Nesting birds leave 

 the nest one by one, sometimes at intervals of an 

 hour or two; at others, of a day or. more. A brood of 

 three young bluebirds recently left the nest in a box 

 on the corner of my porch between seven and ten 

 o'clock. The day before, they began to appear in the 

 opening, and to look out upon the bright summer 

 landscape and chirp; now and then a wing was 

 thrust out and exercised for a moment — probably 

 no bird leaves its nest till it has flapped its wings a 

 little. On the morning of the exodus, the young were 

 more than usually restless and loud and persistent 

 in their calls to their parents. The parents in turn 

 called to them in a new way; it was the plaintive, 

 far-away call that the birds utter on their arrival in 

 spring, and that they send forth when apparently 

 starting on a long flight. The young answered back 

 in the same tone — "pure, pure," as if on the eve 

 of a great adventure. Presently the bird that sat 

 in the opening fluttered out and clung to the out- 

 side of the box, where it remained clinging and 

 calling for a minute or more. Then, with a sudden 

 impulse, it let go its hold and flew straight to the 

 branches of an apple-tree fifty or sixty feet away. It 

 was a successful flight, and a successful alighting. 

 73 



