ficult
for him to keep his place; every few seconds he made wild struggles,
beating the air with his wings, and at last, after enjoying that
elevated position in life about ten minutes, he lost his hold and fell.
I held my breath, for a fall to the ground meant a dead nestling; but he
clutched at a twig two or three feet lower, and succeeded in retaining
this more humble station. Madame came and fed and comforted him, and it
was soon evident that he had learned a lesson, for he moderated his
transports; though his head was as restless as ever, his feet were more
steady; he did not fall again, and he soon scrambled freely all over the
tree.

Now I was interested to see how the redstart babies were brought up, and
for more than four hours I kept my eyes on that youngster. It is no
small task, let me say, to keep watch of an atom an inch or two long, to
whom any leaf is ample screen, to note every movement lest he slip out
of sight, and to make memorandum of each morsel of food he gets. There
were, also, of course, the most seductive sounds about me; never so many
birds came near. Cat-birds whispered softly behind my back; a vireo
cried plaintively over my head; the towhee bunting boldly perched on a
low bush, and saluted me with his peculiar cry; flickers uttered their
quaint "wick-up" on my right, and a veery sighed softly "we-o" on my
left. Unflinchingly, however, I kept my face toward that apple-tree, and
my eyes on that restless young hopeful, while I noted the conduct of the
parents toward him.

This is what I learned: first, that those left in the nest were to be
kept back, and not allowed out of the nursery till this one was able to
care for himself, or at least to help. The nest, holding probably one or
two little ones, was visited, the first hour almost exactly once in
twenty minutes, by madame exclusively, and the three succeeding hours at
longer intervals, by her spouse. Scarcely a move was made there; plainly
there were no more "come-outers" that day. The efforts of the mother
were concentrated on number one, apparently, to bring him forward as
fast as possible. He was, for an hour, fed every five or six minutes,
the next hour only three times, and this system was kept up with perfect
regularity all day.

Meanwhile, the behavior of the happy father was peculiar and somewhat
puzzling, considering how solicitous he had hitherto appeared. For some
time his gay coat was not to be seen, even on his favorite lowe