BIRDS AT CLOSE RANGE. 
55 
der storm, the effects of which on the young Cliebecs have 
been, I hope, a lesson to me, and a frank relation of them 
may, I hope, deter any one who may wish to adopt this 
method of studying birds from incurring a similar weight 
on his conscience. Although the Chebec had apparently 
adjusted herself readily to the new site of her nest, yet 
there must have been something wrong, for she did not 
brood over them at night, and when I went out at two in the 
morning, alarmed for their safety, I found them exposed 
to the driving rain, wet through and chilled. One never 
recovered. The other two I kept warm during the night, 
and the next morning fed them with flies. When the storm 
passed off I replaced the nest, and the old bird resumed 
her task of feeding them. The danger incurred in moving 
the nest from the site selected by the parents is not, as one 
first supposes, that the parents may desert the young, but 
that the young may succumb to extreme heat or violent 
rains. It is difficult to obtain, in the new site, the same 
amount of shade which the young enjoyed before. This 
danger must be carefully considered. No one who really 
loves birds will adopt this method of study from mere cu¬ 
riosity, nor will he fail to take every precution against the 
dangers above mentioned. 
In neither of the cases which I have hitherto described 
was a tent necessary. I am at present, however, watching 
the progress of a family of young hermit thrushes. The 
parents are so shy that unless one’s person is concealed 
they will not approach the nest. They soon became ac¬ 
customed, however, to a motionless object such as the tent, 
and through a peep hole of this, I watch the feeding of the 
young at a distance of about five feet. They are now about 
a week old ; their feather tubes are just bursting, showing 
the brown edges of their coming feathers. At intervals of 
from fifteen minutes to half an hour I hear a low, sweet 
