THE CONDOR I Von. VII I stood almost within reach of the nestS' The little lover looked me over from all sides. Then. as a final test, he popped right into the round door. He knew [ would make a grab at him nest and all. He was out in a twinkle. He looked amazed, for [ didn't move. That was his test of friendship, and from that time he gave me his confidence. Anybody would fall in love with a bush-tit. The fluffy midget does not pos- sess the aerial grace of a swallow, or even the nimbleness of a warbler. He bustles along in such a jerky way, he often looks as if he would topple heels over head bush-tits. They were readily tamed, and we and go whirling to the ground like a tailless kite. But he is a skilled hunter. He skirmishes every tree and bush. He is not so successful a wing-shot as a flycatcher but he has an eye that few can beat in stalking. He is no mean assistant of the gard- ener. He is not the kind that hoes a whole garden in a day, cutting off half the new tender shoots, but he is at work early and late and he is con- stantly at it. We kept run of hush-tit affairs for several days after the young had hatched. The father fed the nestlings as often as the mother. He generally paused on the fern-tops just below the nest. The real drama of life came when the youngsters were fluttering, full-grown, vigorous, impatient to get one glimpse at the outside world from where the mother and father came so (3ften with morsels. We had watched and waited two weeks for this day. The minute one nestling took the idea into his head to get out into the sunshine, it spread like con- tagion among the whole household. The round door poured out young birds with the rapidity of a Gatling gun shooting in every direction at once, and bullets could hardly be any more difficult than the youngsters were to find. By watching the parents carefully we finally found several of the young were soon fairly over-run with tit- mouses. They climbed into our camera, and clung to our clothes as easily as a fly walks up a wall. They perched on our fingers and our heads and the parents had such implicit trust in us that they alighted wherever they found their children. Birds differ only in size and dress from some people, but toone Who has studied long and carefully at the homes of different species, each feathered creature has a real character of its own. What does a cut-and-dried catalogue description mean?
