. Nestlings of forest and marsh . lder, and took especial delight in hid-ing inside my shirtwaist sleeve, entering atthe wrist, which the heat had compelled meto unfasten. They were certainly the tyery prettiest ofall our bird babies, unless we except theyoung chickadee, — when the question be-comes a choice between soft grays or brownsand white. Being so much more helplessthan the chickadees, they appealed to myheart as no other feathered babies ever havedone. As soon as we had placed them nicelywithin focus of the camera on the rushes,one would decide to snuggle up a bit closerto his neighbo
. Nestlings of forest and marsh . lder, and took especial delight in hid-ing inside my shirtwaist sleeve, entering atthe wrist, which the heat had compelled meto unfasten. They were certainly the tyery prettiest ofall our bird babies, unless we except theyoung chickadee, — when the question be-comes a choice between soft grays or brownsand white. Being so much more helplessthan the chickadees, they appealed to myheart as no other feathered babies ever havedone. As soon as we had placed them nicelywithin focus of the camera on the rushes,one would decide to snuggle up a bit closerto his neighbor, and the next moment thefour would perform feats of tumbling notseen in any vaudeville. Some of thefeathers were not entirely out, and thisseemed to bother them, for their littleheads were constantly turning back in fran-tic efforts to preen their funny apologies for9 129 NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH wings, thereby upsetting themselves a dozentimes. After photographing we followed ourusual rule and returned them to the A handful of babies Immediately a little head popped out of thedoorway, followed by a ball of fluffy brownand white, which scrambled at once up ontothe roof of the little house and sat was followed by another, who did exactlythe same thing, except that he tumbled andcaught hold of one of the bulrushes, andafter some struggling regained his balanceand reached a place beside his MARSH CRADLES This was their first taste of freedom, andhow they revelled in it! Looking aboutover the wide stretch of waving green marsh-grass, they chirped a startling imitation oftheir fathers tinkling song and quiveredwith delight. Not once had one of the fouropened his mouth as if hungry, even whenleft alone. After a reasonable length of timewe tucked them back in the nest again and,tired out, they were glad to stay there. During the hour or two we were playingwith the babies the father and mother re-mained within a few feet, calling somewhatanxiously b
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1902
