Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/242

184 impressed with the length of time during which the parents were absent; for, judging by the experience of previous experiment, there seemed to be every likelihood of their losing their offspring in such abnormally cold weather, unless they brooded them more persistently. On the 11th June at 5.50&thinsp; neither parent was to be seen and the young could scarcely be made to respond; but shortly afterwards both male and female appeared, and, after remaining a few minutes, again disappeared without even approaching the nest. At 6.45&thinsp; no attempt had been made to brood and the young were then so feeble that they were scarcely able to open their mouths, and at 6&thinsp; one was still alive but the remaining three were dead. Yet the parents returned and the female went to the nest; and, from a distance of a few feet. I watched her brooding the living and the dead. At 5.45&thinsp; the following day the remaining young bird had succumbed, the temperature then being 49°&thinsp;F.

At the second nest. I was unable to watch the behaviour of the parents so closely. On the 15th June the nest contained three young from three to four days old, and during the morning of that and the succeeding day nothing unusual occurred, with the exception that the period of exposure seemed, as in the former case, to be too long. On the 17th June at 3.10&thinsp; the young had collapsed and were stiff, but the parents were in their territory and anxious apparently to attend to their brood. At 9.15