60 BIKD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 



ten efforts at building card houses, which, when 

 nearly completed, would be brought to ri;in by an 

 ill-placed card. How many times each Chickadee 

 tumbled or fluttered from his perch I can not say. 

 The Soft, elastic net, spread beneath them, preserved 

 them frona injury, and bird after bird was returned 

 to his place so little worse for his fall that ho was 

 quite ready to try it again. Finally, eight birds 

 were induced to take the positions assigned them ; 

 then, in assisting the ninth to his allotted place, the 

 balance of a bird on either side would be disturbed, 

 and down into the net tliey would go. 



These <lifiiculties, hfiwever, could be overcome, 

 but not so the failure of the light at the critical time, 

 making it necessary to expose with a wide open lens 

 at the loss of a dejith of focus. 



The picture presented, therefore, does not do the 

 subject justice. Nor can it tell of the pleasure with 

 which each fledgeling fur the first time stretched its 

 wings and legs to their full extent, and preened its 

 plumage with bef(_ire unknown freedom. 



At the same time they uttered a satisfied little 

 dee-dee-dee, in quaint imitation of their elders. 

 When I whistled their well-known iihe-lic note, thej' 

 were at once on the alert, and evidently expected to 

 be feil. 



Thc! birds wert* within two or three days of leav- 

 ing the nest, and, the sitting over, the problem came 

 of retui'iiing the flock to a cavity l:)arely two inches 

 in diameter, the bottom of which was almost filled 

 by one bird. 



I at once confess a failure to restore anything 

 like the condition in which they were found, and 



