A MAY MOVING 
male, for so we will call the more soberly 
gowned fledgling, was soft dappled gray 
with scarcely a hint of blue in her coloring. 
Energy, courage, and a temper were surely 
hers, whatever her sex. She never liked to 
receive her food from our hands, would fight 
whenever a finger 
was presented to 
her, and greeted 
us always with 
the peculiar hiss 
of birds born in 
Baby bluebirds twelve days old 
hollowtrees. She 
looked on with indignation when we fed her 
small brother, and though apparently very 
hungry herself, never extended her bill for any 
morsel offered on the finger-tips or held over 
her between fingers. If given on the end 
of a wooden toothpick, it was eagerly swal- 
lowed. The blue wings of the male nestling 
quivered in eagerness, hers trembled with 
anger ; and these two emotions were as dis- 
tinct and easily recognized as in the behavior 
to a human baby. 
35 
