Stoically and unflinchingly he sat on a limb among the leaves, while the two blue-drab midgets were attacking him vigorously. Coming closer to the tree I saw that it was a California shrike that these little birds were fighting, and tho he seemed to be minding his own business, the small birds resented his presence in their vicinity and kept up the attack until he left their neighborhood.
On this same morning from 7:25 to 8:25, the birds fed thirty-five times, less than two minutes apart; the male twenty-seven times, the female fourteen. The next morning, in the hour from 6:37 to 7:37, the birds fed forty-six times, the male thirty-six and the female twenty-four times. In looking over my notes I find that the birds fed more often early in the morning than later in the day.
In five hours, 6:30 to 11:30, they fed one hundred and fifty-two times, or an average of thirty-eight times an hour. Allowing sixteen hours to their day, we can estimate that they fed six hundred and eight times. The word "gnatcatcher" proved to be a misnomer, the food brought so often being small white worms.
On the night before our departure for the city, my companion returned to camp and announced that she had found another gnatcatcher's nest. It was built on the south side of a tall, straight eucalyptus tree about twenty feet from the ground, its only supports being the tiny twigs that grew out from the side of the tree. Like the other nest it was small across, but deep, and so exactly matched the gray of the tree that it was hard to locate, even when one knew where it was. The tree grew near the road and tho we had passed it many times every day, it remained unknown to us until the vociferous calling of the young revealed their whereabouts.
There were three birds in the nest and we were more than pleased to see that they were much larger than the others we were watching. These little fellows were fully feathered and looked just like their parents except that their tails were shorter. They were very uneasy in the nest and it seemed evident that they would not stay there long. They noticed the old birds when they came near the tree and called loudly to be fed. We had never heard the other nest of young make any noise or take any notice except as the old birds put the food in their mouth.
An oak tree grew so near the nest tree that its branches almost touched the latter. This tree was used by the gnatcatchers for their preliminary jumping ground when they did not go directly to the nest; but quite often they came right to the nest, or approached it by way of a lower twig, leaving by one of the upper ones. These birds fed oftener than the others, one hundred and five times being the record for two hours that we watched them. Little wonder that they had no time to waste in unnecessary movements with such vigorous youngsters making demands upon them!
At 7:37 a. m., as we watched at the nest, we believed our dearest hopes were to be realized, and that we were to see these youngsters make their debut into the world; for suddenly one fluffy ball came fluttering forth from its gray home, landing on one of the twig supports. But, alas, all too quickly our hopes were crushed, for no sooner had the nestling stopped himself than he turned about and scrambled post-haste, back into the nest. It was really very funny to see him. He cuddled down into the nest after this exertion as if he were glad to rest. Again in the afternoon about 1:30 a young bird left the nest. Standing on the edge he fluttered his wings twice as if trying to get up courage, and then the third time he flew out onto a twig, perhaps six inches from his home. This time as before, the stay on the twig was a short one, the bird hurrying back to the nest as in the case of the morning trial.
We watched at this nest until 4:30 p. m., when it was time for us to start for
