Page:The British Warblers A History with Problems of Their Lives - 4 of 9.djvu/37

 One egg is laid every twenty-four hours, either during the night or the very early hours of the morning, until the full number, which is usually five, is completed. Incubation lasts from ten to fifteen days.

When the young are hatched the parents become very nervous, and this is especially the case if the nest is approached or any attempt made to watch their movements. I have sometimes found it necessary to wait for fully two hours before they would commence to feed their offspring. Owing to this nervousness they perch upon the branches close at hand, and if they notice any movement either retire with a flirt of the tail into the foliage, flutter close to and round one's head or even expostulate openly, swelling out their throats and uttering their quiet alarm note.

The parent birds share the duties of tending the young, and both exhibit very strongly all the peculiar characteristics of the species. The male is perhaps the more timid, although the difference, if any, is slight. They creep up to the nest and settle upon the side of it, but even then their courage often fails, and after remaining motionless for a few seconds quietly retire. When in this hesitating mood they often swallow the food they are holding, tired, perhaps, of carrying it about for so long, yet hurriedly going in search of more, and in a few moments returning with a fresh supply. It seems almost as if this unnatural check to the proper carrying out of their routine of instinctive activities made them uneasy; nevertheless, like the hive-bee, they appear to be compelled to follow an invariable order of work. During the first week after the young are hatched the greater part of the parents' time is passed in brooding. They bring, a small supply of food, and one of them then settles down upon the nest for a short period, varying from ten to twenty minutes, and when thus brooding the female will leave the nest in response to a note from the male, or the reverse may be the case. The young are not fed in any succession, one particular bird, in fact, often receiving food from both