. The Audubon annual bulletin. Birds; Birds. 18 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN Criticising the Cowbird (Copied from Mr. T. E. Musselman's notebook.) April 20. A pair of house wrens have taken possession of the south compartment of my hanging barrel. April 22. The pair of robins which have a nest in the upper branches of the pear tree, object to the wrens in the hanging box below. Often when one of the wrens is struggling to get a long stick thru the entrance hole, the robins fly down and frustrate the effort, the wren lodging itself in a nearby lilac bush where he scolds and no doubt swears and says som
. The Audubon annual bulletin. Birds; Birds. 18 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN Criticising the Cowbird (Copied from Mr. T. E. Musselman's notebook.) April 20. A pair of house wrens have taken possession of the south compartment of my hanging barrel. April 22. The pair of robins which have a nest in the upper branches of the pear tree, object to the wrens in the hanging box below. Often when one of the wrens is struggling to get a long stick thru the entrance hole, the robins fly down and frustrate the effort, the wren lodging itself in a nearby lilac bush where he scolds and no doubt swears and says some very caustic things about his neighbors up above. May 1. Believe the wrens have finished building. May 2. It rained last night. Many new migrants here. I dug in the garden and my pair of robins enjoyed a feast of earth worms. I took several worms and hung them on the step before the wrens' nest. The wrens did not like the intrusion, and the male bird seized the morsels and flew to a neighboring elm tree where he dropped them. May 4. Robins have a full set of eggs. Believe the female wren also has started laying. May 6. I heard the wrens complaining and chattering. Fearing a cat, I hurried onto the back porch with my rifle, but could see no reason for the commotion. Suddenly the mother robin left her nest up in the pear tree and flew headlong toward a clump of long grass at the base of the syringa bush. A female cowbird had been hiding there and flew away with the robin in hot pursuit. Again the wrens demonstrated their ability to say mean things—evidently this time about the cowbird. May 8. Heard the wrens talking spiritedly. I took up my station on the porch but could not see anything. Quiet was finally restored, and the wrens began their busy duties. Both disappeared in a neigh- boring yard and I also noticed that the robins were not on guard. From the base of the syringa crawled forth a sneak—a female cow- bird. She took half a dozen steps and then stopped. She peered
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookcollectionbiodiversity, booksubjectbirds
