14 DHE AsU\D"U BON BU. Es aie 
It sat on the porch six feet away from my window quite oblivious to the 
motionless watcher inside. The baby had well developed wings, but no tail. 
Tufts of fuzz still protruded from his dull colored feathers and a bunch on 
either side of his small bald head gave him a clownish and comical appear- 
ance. His small eyes were bleary and blinky. With monotonous regularity 
his wide mouth opened and shut on a complaining “cheep,” or perhaps he 
meant cheap. 
Before I saw the flash of orange, the little fluff-ball would spread his 
wing's, point his bill heavenward and increase his cheeps to rapid “dee-dee- 
dee’s.” Into this bottomless pit went the father’s bill from one to seven 
times. Winged insects there were and dangling worms. How he could 
collect such a crop without losing what he had, and then apportion it out 
so skillfully, was a marvel. Several times it appeared as if he picked an 
article out of his son’s throat and put it back again. Far be it from me to 
accuse a gentleman of imposing upon the confiding and open nature of his 
offspring by feeding him the same worm twice, but it certainly was a queer 
proceeding. 
At intervals of half to two minutes this stuffing process went on with 
no cessation of cheeps and no apparent bulging of contents—such is the 
well known capacity of a growing bird. It is said a robin eats two and a 
half times his own weight each day, and this diet includes about fourteen 
feet of earth worms, a statement which the scientists will have to verify, 
as I cannot. Both the orioles and wrens have walked all over my porch 
screens collecting spiders, moths, crane flies and white cocoons, which they 
peel off skillfully. It is, indeed, a strenuous life the bird families are leading 
these glorious June days. 
fi ff ff 
THE ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY welcomes Dr. T. H. Frison, Chief of the 
Illinois State Natural History Survey, as a member of its Board of Direc- 
tors. Dr. Frison was elected at the June meeting to serve for three years 
and the Society feels honored by his acceptance. Earl G. Wright, now a 
resident of Green Bay, Wis., submitted his resignation and the Board loses 
a valued member. 
ff Ff 
Guests of a Tampa Bay Game Warden 
By ESTHER A. CRAIGMILE 
BIRD PROTECTION in the rookeries near Tampa has for many years been 
sponsored by Dr. and Mrs. H. R. Mills, of Shoreacres, Florida. April 9, 
1942, Mrs. Mills conducted an interested group of Bird and Tree Circle 
members of the St. Petersburg Garden Club to the area. Mr. Fred Schultz, 
the game warden, met us in South Tampa. He had parked his motor boat 
and trailer among the mangroves, since there was no pier. Reluctantly the 
party left myriads of fiddler crabs on the shore and, with slacks rolled 
above the knees, paddled to the trailer. 
Prairie warblers vied in defying us, “You can’t find my little nest.” 
A clapper rail called in the mangroves. We first skirted about an island 
