NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH 
promptly took out the latter, and have been 
sorry ever since. Not that I have any liking 
for cowbirds, but removing it spoiled the 
interesting experiment of watching a young 
cowbird develop among a family of baby 
thrashers. I believe in this case he would 
have been worsted. 
A few days after finding this nest we were 
surprised one fine morning to see every egg 
hatched and five naked, flesh-colored babies 
snugly tucked together there. An effort to 
lift one disturbed them all. 
The mother was quite fearless when on 
the nest, and allowed us to come close to 
her. At my approach she flattened her 
body, and her eyes flashed anger as well as 
fear. If driven off, she alighted near, jerk- 
ing her long tail in impotent rage. It is 
wonderful how many emotions are expressed 
by a bird’s tail, especially if that bird belongs 
to the thrasher or wren family. If, however, 
she happened to be away when we called, 
she could not be induced to go back while 
we remained in the vicinity. 
230 
