550 
A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
or a feather bed, or if the crib itself was made of wood or 
metal ? 
At the time of the spring migration, the birds that have 
been living in flocks all winter put on fresh feathers, and court 
and separate into pairs just as people do when they marry and 
begin housekeeping. Naturally they feel very happy, and have 
a great deal to say to each other, and this is what makes birds 
break into song when the spring comes to give them new life. 
Though some few females can sing, it is the males who 
make the beautiful music that we hear in the spring mornings. 
The female is too busy with her housekeeping to do more than 
answer, but her husband’s song cheers her while she is brood- 
ing, and he probably tells her how pretty her new feathers are, 
and how much he loves her, too. 
Among our gayly-colored birds, unlike people, it is the 
male who wears the brightest clothes. The Scarlet Tanager 
and the Goldfinch both have plain, greenish-olive colored 
wives. The female Blue Jay is of a less bright hue than her 
mate, and the mate of the Rosebreasted Grosbeak wears a 
buff, brownish-streaked vest. 
\\ hv ? Because as the mother bird spends more time about 
the nest than the father, if she wore bright clothes she would 
attract too much attention, and cruel hawks, squirrels, and 
thieving people would find it too easily; and Nature’s first 
thought is always of the care and protection of young life, 
whether of plant, bird, or beast. 
Almost all of our birds feed the young nestling with ani- 
mal food, even if they themselves are seed eaters ; for little 
birds must grow quickly, and you would hardly believe the 
number of worms and flying things it takes to turn one little 
Robin from the queer helpless, featherless thing that it is when 
it hatches from the egg, into the clumsy, clamoring ball of 
feathers, with awkward wings and hardly a bit of a tail to 
balance it, that it is when it leaves the nest. 
No human father and mother work harder to feed their 
children than do these feathered parents, who toil cease- 
lessly from sunrise until sunset to bring food and share by 
turns the protection of the nest. 
THE MOULTING 
After the nesting season is over, and a pair of birds have 
raised two, and, as with the Wrens, sometimes three broods, 
