Page:Bird-lore Vol 06.djvu/70

 A Summer With the Bluebirds 4;

I proceeded to ﬁll. In this way I fed them two or three times during the afternoon and at the last feeding led them out onto my hand and brought them in to their fellows in the shoebox. .\ext day I tried to return the young birds to their parents, but. while I saw the iemalr nn the deserted hox once. she paid no atren»

tion tn the nest- lings and >00" ﬂew off. timer to be seen again.

A month of delightiul hird

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study followed. The nestlings were tame as kittens from the ﬁrst. and never showed the least trace of fear or wildness. We gave them a room in the kennel, and how they learned to drink and bathe and feed themv selves is a story by itself.

One sad incident I ought not to omit. In my series of feeding tests I brought in a number of potato beetles and thoughtlessly dropped a large larva into an open mouth before observing whether they would take them of their own accord. I noticed then that they picked them up once apiec. wiped their bills in disgust and declined to touch them again. Next morning one of the birds was dead under the perch.

We liberated the birds—each with a tiny aluminum anklet. for pur- poses oi identiﬁcation this spring—one bright morning in early September. and feared we had seen the last of them as they ﬂitted out of sight among the treetops. I was glad. however. to see that they were actively catch- ing insects among the branches. and since black cherries were ripe they

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