ANIMAL BEHAVIOR, WITH EXAMPLES 

 Taking Spizella's Portrait 



265 



'f% 





ARIOUS species of young 

 birds are leaving their 

 nests in the beginning 

 of August, and if one 

 desires to record their 

 portraits this is the last 

 opportunity of the nest- 

 ing season. This was 

 the conclusion I came to 

 as I started out in the bright 

 sunlight one afternoon, with a 

 \iew to photographing a nest of a field spar- 

 row. The nest which I had in mind was 

 near the top of a black raspberry bush and 

 it had been examined and found to contain 

 three nestlings. 

 • At the last inspection I noticed that their 

 bodies were nearly naked and that the feathers 

 of the wings were in the form of quills^ not yet spreading 

 into feathers. After two days of absence I found on arriving 

 at the nesting site that the young had- acquired a complete 

 covering of feathers. Who could have believed that in such 

 a short time the development of plumage could be so rapid? 

 Yet there were two sprightly little ones, with short tails and 

 brownish suits, whose precociousness led them to stand tri- 

 umphantly on the branches. How unconcerned they appeared 

 as I viewed them; their inconspicuous bodies showed scarcely 

 any signs of animation. 



But from another quarter I was being intently watched. 

 In an instant more the mother bird, which had been perched 

 upon a bare twig some distance away, now suddenly appeared. 



