Page:Bird-lore Vol 06.djvu/68

 A Summer With the Bluebirds 4’;

tame enough to alight on the hand. but he would come rlose enough to pick the worms out ol it.

Bluet and Twinklewing had found water and food. and there were about twenty suitable houses within a stone's throw. However. I wanted them to nest closer to the window, and so made and put up a new house in the cherry tree. just where I could study thetn to best advantage. I hardly dared hope that they would go into it. there Were so many other house about. Very soon their desire for a borne eclipsed even their appetite for mealworms. They tried every house on the premises and might be gotte— presumably houseihunting—ior a day or two at a time. But at last, to my delight, Bitter began carrying billfuls of pine needles into my house in the cherry tree. But then. when the nest was ﬁnished, they seemed to pay no attention to it for nearly a week. Soon after that. however, there were five blue eggs and Bluet was brooding. or— as I thought—ought to 'have been, She was certainly 05 the nest tnore than half the time in daylight. ﬂying about catching insects and enjoying her self generally. I was tempted to rate her as a shiitlcss mother. and did not believe that she would hatch a single egg. She did spend her nights on the nest and, after she had gone in and it was beginning to grow dark. Twinkle-

wing would hang with his head in [he ‘rnr. Hem Ix THE cum“ 'rRH kas‘r mum" on rn'r

box for minutes at a time. while a queer series of good-night squeaks could be heard. Then he would ﬂy away, and I could not diswver where he slept.

I was glad to admit that Bluet knew more about hatching her eggs than I did, for they all came out May eleventh and all grew to maturity. The seventeenth day aiter hatching. the young ones sat for their pictures and betook themselves to the [recetopi I left the nest undisturbed. but. while the parents continued to come to the window for worms, I did not see a Bluebird paythe least attention to it for the rest at (ht: season.

It would take a hook to tell all the pleasure and entertainment and opportunity for study they furnished. Several of nn students worked their laboratorv periods recording the number of insects brought to the nest, but the best students of all were the children. who daily had astory to tell oi the Bluebirds catching insects in the garden or taking their baths in the