234 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



Two of the birds flew off slantingly to the ground, while a third 

 flew to the branches of a walnut tree about forty feet away. 

 They used their wings surprisingly well, considering the little 

 exercise they had had. The latter consisted in occasional 

 wanderings along the beam a foot or two from the nest, and 

 these ventures occurred only two or three days before the 

 final flight. 



These little birds were pressed to leave their nest also by the 

 parasites infesting them. These mite pests were so numerous 

 that once when I removed one of the young birds for examination 

 my hands and shirt were covered with mites. They were 

 gotten rid of only by strenuous brushing with a broom. When 

 they get on the human skin they give rise to a distinct irrita- 

 tion. It is, in fact, remarkable that the young birds can tolerate 

 such hordes of mites infesting their bodies. On placing one 

 of the young birds on a smooth table, the mites fairly swarmed 

 off its body on to the varnished flat surface, where they were 

 easily observed. This little bird that I took indoors became 

 very tame and learned to alight on my fingers for food. It ate 

 small grasshoppers, after they were first killed and stripped of 

 their legs and wings. This diet, when crushed and mixed 

 with mocking-bird food, became the staple article of nourish- 

 ment, but the bird occasionally ate youngs, green walking-sticks 

 and small, smooth caterpillars and moths that I captured for 

 it. The bird had no trouble in swallowing these tit-bits. On 

 feeding the phcebe a full-grown walking-stick in two pieces, it 

 soon disgorged it. Evidently the walking-stick presents some 

 unpalatable features to young birds, or perhaps its lengthened 

 body was a mechanical impediment to digestion. I kept the 

 tamed phcebe until the fifteenth of September, when it was 

 allowed to join the migrating throng. 



