146 
THE CONDOR 
VOL. VI 
tween the two upright forks of an arrow-wood bush. We had never bothered 
them very much with the camera, but when they put their home right down 
within four feet and a hali of the ground, it looked to me as if they wanted some 
pictures taken. It was too good a chance for us to miss. 
When I waded through the ferns and pressed aside the bushes, the nest was 
full to the brim. Above the rim I could see the white fluff wavering in a breath 
of air. I stole up and looked in. I'he three bantlings were sound asleep. Neither 
parent happened to be near. I crawled back and hid well down in the bushes 
twelve feet away. The father came in as silent as a shadow and rested on the 
nest’s edge. He was a beauty. He had a shiny black head, black wings crossed 
with bars of white, and the rich red-brown of his breast shaded into lemon-yellow 
toward the tail. He crammed something in each wide open mouth. The mother 
was right at his heels. She treated each bobbing head in the same way. Then, 
MALE GROSBEAK ABOUT TO FEED YOUNG 
with head cocked on the side she looked each 3ajungster over, turning him gently 
with her head. 
The weather was warm and it seemed to me the j'oung grosbeaks grew 
almost fast enough to rival a toad-stool. Sunshine makes a big difference. These 
little fellows got plent}- to eat and were where the sun filtered through the leaves 
and kept them warm. The young thrushes across the gully were in a dark spot. 
They got as much food but they rarely got a glint of the sun. The}' didn’t grow 
as much in a week as the grosbeak babies did in three days. 
I liked to sit and watch the brilliant male. He perched on the top branches 
of the hr and stretched his wings till you could see their lemon lining. He 
preened his tail to show the hidden .spots of white. What roundelays he whistled 
“Whit-te-o! Whit-te-o! Reet!” Early in the morning he showed the quality of his 
singing. I^ater in the day it often lost finish. The notes sounded hard to get out. 
