able to hold its own
against its enemy. Both birds became fledged and left the nest about the
same time. Whether the race was an even one after that, I know not.

THE CHIPPING SPARROW

When the true flycatcher catches a fly, it is quick business. There is
no strife, no pursuit,--one fell swoop, and the matter is ended. Now
note that yonder little sparrow is less skilled. It is the chippy, and
he finds his subsistence properly in various seeds and the larvae of
insects, though he occasionally has higher aspirations, and seeks to
emulate the pewee, commencing and ending his career as a flycatcher by
an awkward chase after a beetle or "miller." He is hunting around in the
grass now, I suspect, with the desire to indulge this favorite whim.
There!--the opportunity is afforded him. Away goes a little
cream-colored meadow-moth in the most tortuous course he is capable of,
and away goes Chippy in pursuit. The contest is quite comical, though I
dare say it is serious enough to the moth. The chase continues for a few
yards, when there is a sudden rushing to cover in the grass,--then a
taking to wing again, when the search has become too close, and the moth
has recovered his wind. Chippy chirps angrily, and is determined not to
be beaten. Keeping, with the slightest effort, upon the heels of the
fugitive, he is ever on the point of halting to snap him up, but never
quite does it; and so, between disappointment and expectation, is soon
disgusted, and returns to pursue his more legitimate means of
subsistence.

* * * * *

Last summer I made this record in my notebook: "A nest of young robins
in the maple in front of the house being fed by a chipping sparrow. The
little sparrow is very attentive; seems decidedly fond of her adopted
babies. The old robins resent her services, and hustle her out of the
tree whenever they find her near the nest. (It was this hurried
departure of Chippy from the tree that first attracted my attention.)
She watches her chances, and comes with food in their absence. The young
birds are about ready to fly, and when the chippy feeds them her head
fairly disappears in their capacious mouths. She jerks it back as if she
were afraid of being swallowed. Then she lingers near them on the edge
of the nest, and seems to admire them. When she sees the old robin
coming, she spreads her wings in an attitude of defense, and then flies
away. I wonder if she has had the experi