36 THE, (A) UsD U2 BON BYU i Dee 
I did not go to the nest immediately, wishing to watch the 
mother bird. She was in a nearby tree, not particularly per- 
turbed, but calling to her young in a very sweet, high note, that 
sounded rather ventriloquistic, a constant call that one could 
easily imagine was ‘“‘baby, baby, baby, sweet baby, babe, baby.” 
When I finally looked into the nest she stopped her call entirely 
and was silent, probably was more perturbed, but did not show 
it outwardly by sound or motion of any kind. The male was not 
in evidence. Perhaps it was a widow’s home. 
In the same tree, not ten feet distant was the rest of a 
cedar waxwing, about 15 feet from the ground. The bird was 
setting or at least covering her young. I could not see in. This 
nest also had the same cotton-wood cotton dabs on its exterior. 
In an adjoining hawthorn, about 20 feet up, is a robin’s nest 
with the usual white rag in its make up. One parent bird was 
feeding angle worms to its young and the other was going to 
a nearby wild grape vine and gathering grapes, several at a 
time which it apparently swallowed, but perhaps it fed them 
to the young later, merely “half swallowing” them for the pur- 
pose of carrying them. I picked up a robin on the ground, not 
yet able to fly, as its feathers were not yet large enough, and I 
am sure it was one from the same nest, which had escaped a 
little earlier than its brothers. 
On my way out I observed that the young from a cedar 
waxwing’s nest in my back yard were just out of the nest. One 
of the young was sitting on a wire fence trying to balance it- 
self. Its feathers were still too short for much flying. Its wings 
looked dark, its back was grayish, it had the black line through 
the eye, and the tip of its little tail (it was not a quarter of an 
inch long) showed golden. The mother was much worried at 
our presence and was hovering in front of it with a red berry 
in her mouth, (either one of my very ripe currants or a wild 
cherry not yet ripe) trying to induce it to fly to a safer place. I 
watched the construction of this nest which was started July 
second. It took a week to build, the birds being very leisurely 
about it, doing a little work every morning, and both assisting. 
Waxwings are real helpmates to each other, in all their married 
activities, always being close together, and one adult often feed- 
ing the other. There are no brawls or rolling pins in their home 
life and no back talk, unless it is in the sign language, for there 
is never a note out of them except the familiar beady one that 
is hardly audible. This nest also had the cottonwood dabs on 
its outside. 
I noticed last Sunday, August fifth, that the first assem- 
bling of martins was being held on a telegraph wire in my back 
yard. Each year this occurs about this time and the number is 
about 32, I presume it is the adults and their families that live 
in the nearest martin house, say about five pairs and their new- 
ly raised young of about four or five per family. A little later 
. 
