Short-billed. 
5h Wrens 
Partridge in its death flurry and making a precisely similar 
sound. A Thrasher, attracted by the commotion, darted 
through the undergrowth and alighting within six inches of 
the Dove regarded her with evident wonder and concern, 
and a Flicker came into a tree overhead and peeped curiously 
down through the leaves, uttering a low worr- e-e- roo of 
enquiry or sympathy. After groveling thus for a minute or 
more, the Dove started off along the ground, alternately 
fluttering and walking. I did not follow her and she did 
not return while I was near the nest. As an imitation of the 
behavior of a badly-wounded or rather dying bird I have never 
seen anything to equal the performance just described. It 
was not accompanied by any vocal sounds whatever. Perhaps 
the most interesting thing connected with it is the fact 
that the nest about which all this fuss was made was in a 
tree and the eggs still unhatched i When I looked at them a 
few minutes later, I noticed for the first time that one was 
fully a third larger than the other. The "runt 11 egg looked 
transparent' and infertile but the larger egg was dark- 
colored and evidently near hatching. After descending to 
the ground, I drove away the Jiys and left the place. 
object of my trip to-day was to look for 
the nests of the Short-billed Marsh Wrens but the weather 
was too hot and the greater part of the belt of canary 
grass where the two birds were singing last week had been 
cut. Both birds, however, were singing still in the uncut 
^Another 
S’* 
