€4 A SUMMER RESIDENT 



Then it is pounded on the ground, tied neatly in a 

 bundle, and carried speedily to the nest to fill those 

 gaping, yellow throats. After the greedy progeny 

 leave the nest and learn to cry out for food the 

 parents become still more assiduous. The biggest 

 and fattest of the brood cry out the loudest, and as 

 a consequence get the most food. Sometimes after 

 one lusty-throated little gourmand has been fed into 

 temporary quietness with half a dozen worms, a little, 

 attenuated twin-brother, sitting unobserved in the 

 shadow of a limb, is given an unattached worm, 

 which he swallows in silent thankfulness. When the 

 demands of the brood seem almost insatiable the 

 weary and overworked parents suddenly decide to go 

 on strike. There is an outburst of indignation on the 

 part of the full-grown progeny. They seem to feel 

 grievously wronged. They dart at the idling parents 

 as if to drive them off in search of food. They chase 

 them from place to place in vain. The elders submit 

 to everjrthing but a return to parental serfdom. In a 

 day the importunate juniors realise that their support 

 has been withdrawn and learn to get along without 

 it. Now they are making their own way in the world, 

 and for a time the mellow songs of early spring are 

 renewed. Soon the cares and delights of a second 

 brood wiU supplant the joys of the interval of song. 



