Page:Condor6(6).djvu/5

?46 THE CONDOR VoL. VI tween the two upright forks of an arrow-wood bush. We had never bothered them very much with the camera, but when they put their home right down within four feet and a hall of the ground, it looked to me as if they wanted some- pictures taken. It was too good a chance for us to miss. When I waded through the ferns and pressed aside the buslies, the nest was full to the brim. Above the rim I could see the white fluff wavering in a breath of air. I stole up and looked in. The three bantlings were sound asleep. l?Teither parent happened to be near. I crawled back and hid well down in the bushes twelve feet away. The .father came in as silent as a sbadow and rested on the nest's edge. He was a beauty. He had a shiny black head, black wings crossed with bars of white, and the rich red-brown of his breast shaded into lemon-yellow toward the tail. He crammed something in each wide open mouth. The mother was right at his heels. She treated each bobbing head in the same way. Then, with head cocked on the side she looked each youngster over, turning him gently with her head. The weather was warm and it seemed to me the young grosbeaks grew almost fast enough to rival a toad-stool. Sunshine makes a big difference. These little fellows got plenty to eat and were where the sun filtered through the leaves and kept them warm. The young thrushes across the gully were in a dark spot. They got as much food but they rarely got a glint of the sun. They didn't grow as much in a week as the grosbeak babies did in three days. I liked to sit and watch the brilliant male. He perched on the top branches of the fir and stretched his wings till you could see their lemon lining. He preened his tail to show the hidden spots of white. What roundelays he whistled "Whit-te-o! Whir-re-o! Reet!" Early in the morning he showed the quality of his singing. Later in the day it often lost finish. ?'he notes sounded hard to get out,