A MARTINET IN FEATHERS 
model nest satisfactory to both. In it were 
laid four blue eggs, and the 2d of June 
sitting began. The little mother was ex- 
tremely nervous, and watched my window 
with frightened eyes. Fearing she would 
desert, I kept the curtains drawn, and only 
indulged in cautious pei^king. For fourteen 
days she brooded, relieved at long intervals 
by her mate. 
At these times, when he was left in 
charge, he made no pretence of covering 
the eggs, but stood astride them, a ludi- 
crous picture of masculine helplessness in 
the care of babies. If she lingered away 
too long, he called her, — ^at first coaxingly, 
then imperatively, then angrily ; and often 
have I seen him fly out and drive her back 
to her proper sphere in the home. At such 
times he lectured her severely on her neglect 
of duty, and flew away without his customary 
soft twittering. Whether because she feared 
me or because she liked liberty, she was 
loath to come back to the drudgery of nest- 
keeping, and he knew it. He was a strict 
63 
