40 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
that a hole had been made in the stub, 
so that the feathers of tlie young ones 
in the nest showed, and there were 
feathers on the ground. The parents 
and the older nestling, were much ex¬ 
cited, so I waited, and came back the 
next morning; all was quiet then as the 
providers were away gathering food. 
So I got up and found that something 
had made the hole and killed one of 
the nestlings. Fearing that all would 
die if the dead were left in the nest, i 
opened the hole a little with my knife 
and took out the dead nestling, after¬ 
ward carefully covering the hole with 
strips of birch bark, so that the nest 
was safer than before, for there had 
been a dangerous crack in it. 
While I was doing this, the old birds 
and other nestling, came back, and 
were much distressed by my interfer¬ 
ence. But I was careful not to let 
them see the dead nestling, and soon 
left them to settle down. After that 
all went well with them in spite of the 
alarms and excitements that make a 
bird’s life so thrilling. And one day l 
saw the two nestlings leave the nest. 
The parents and the devoted older 
brother or sister, (unfortunately one 
could not tell which it was) were 
greatly excited over this event, and 
for some time before the youngones 
left the nest, the female had been call¬ 
ing to them and encouraging them to 
take their first flight. 
I have never seen any other young 
bird feeding its brothers and sisters, 
though T have watched many families, 
and Mr. C. W. Beebe, author of “The 
Bird/’ is the only other person I know, 
who has seen it. If any readers of “By 
The Wayside,” have been so fortunate 
as to observe anything of the kind, it 
would be a good thing to report it. 
The Doves of St. Csjetan 
Everyone has heard, of course, about 
the doves of the church of San Marco 
in Venice. Much less often does one 
hear of the doves of St. Cajetan in 
Munich. And yet they are quite as 
great an attraction. The church of St. 
Cajetan stands on one of the most 
prominent squares of Munich. It was 
built in the seventeenth century by the 
Princess Adelaide Henriette of Savow 
wife of Ferdinand, Elector of Bavaria. 
In its vaults lie the bodies of emperors 
and kings. At its chapels the new 
king and his family say their prayers. 
But in its steeples and under its eaves 
the doves have set up housekeeping, 
and no one forbids them. Across the 
street is a large triangular area kept 
free of wagon traffic, and where, four 
days of every week, at noon, a large 
crowd gathers to hear the concert of 
the military band. Near bv is the 
stand of a fruit huckster who also sells 
little bags of grain to people who are 
anxious to feed the doves. And there! 
are always buyers. You may pass at 
any time of day, and you will always 
find someone with a large flock around 
him eagerly picking up the scattered 
kernels. But sweetest it is to see some 
little tot of three or four, vdth doves 
on shoulders and arms, with an admir¬ 
ing crowd of grown-ups forming a cir¬ 
cle round about. Munich herself is 
very proud of these doves, and sees to 
it that they are not molested. Cer¬ 
tainly there are places in our ovm 
country where doves could be similar¬ 
ly made an ornament of a city square 
or park. 
George Wagner. 
