60 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



ing to the box and looking in, and one of the sparrows 

 even had the audacity to attempt to adopt and feed 

 the young bluebirds. What could the parents do? 

 They could not stay and watch the sparrows continu- 

 ously, for the lusty young were clamorous for food. 

 So these wise birds called together the elder brood — 

 elder brothers and sisters, whom I had not seen for 

 weeks— who were by this time as large as the parents, 

 but readily distinguished from them by their curiously 

 mottled breasts, which they wear the first summer. 

 The parents instructed these young ones to keep guard 

 over the house while they were away in search of food, 

 which they did for several days. The house was scarce- 

 ly left a moment. One or more of the family were al- 

 most constantly present, and would dart at the sparrows 

 whenever they made an attempt to come near, until the 

 young left the box, when the happy family became re- 

 united, both broods, with the parents, eating poke-ber- 

 ries from a large bush which I had allowed to remain 

 expressly for them. 



When the ground is covered with snow, the various 

 species of our native sparrows, so full of life and jollity, 

 will doubly repay any lover of birds for the care be- 

 stowed upon them. 



Last winter I kept a space of ground beneath my 

 study window free from snow, where I scattered coarse 

 Indian meal and millet-seed, and this ground soon be- 

 came a mimic stage for these bright actors. The names 

 of the most noted were Junco hyemalis, Zonotrichia 



