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cattle yard. Each pair, anyone would have felt assured, had laid out the limits of its own domain, and it was seldom that one trespassed on the grounds of its neighbor. The Pewee of the cave generally fed or spent its time so far above the mill on the creek that he of the mill never came in contact with it. The Pewee of the cattle yard confined himself to the orchard and never disturbed the rest. Yet I sometimes could hear distinctly the notes of the three at the same moment. I had at that period an idea that the whole of these birds were descended from the same stock. If not correct in this supposition, I had ample proof afterwards that the brood of young Pewees raised in the cave returned the following spring and established themselves farther up on the creek and among the outhouses in the neighborhood.
    On some other occasion I will give you such instances of the return of birds, accompanied by their progeny, to the place of their nativity that perhaps you will become convinced as I am at this moment that to this propensity every country owes the augmentation of new species, whether of birds or of quadrupeds, attracted by the many benefits met with as countries become more open and better cultivated: but now I will, with your leave, return to the Pewees of the cave.
    On the thirteenth day, the little ones were hatched. One egg was unproductive and the female on the second day after the birth of her brood very deliberately pushed it out of the nest. On examining this egg I found it containing the embryo of a bird partly dried up, with its vertebrae quite fast to the shell, which had probably occasioned its death. Never have I since so closely witnessed the attention of birds to their young. Their entrance with insects was so frequently repeated that I thought I saw the little ones grow as I gazed upon them. The old birds no longer looked upon me as an enemy and would often come in close by me, as if I had been a post. I now took upon me to handle the young frequently; nay, several times I took the whole family out and blew off the exuviae of the feathers from the nest. I attached light threads to their legs: these they invariably removed either with their bills or with the assistance of their parents. I renewed them, however, until I foundthe little fellows habituated to them; and at last, when they were about to leave the nest, I fixed a light silver thread to the leg of each, loose enough not to hurt the part but so fastened that no exertions of theirs could remove it.
    Sixteen days had passed when the brood took to wing; and the old birds, dividing the time with caution, began to arrange the nest anew. A second set ofeggs were laid and in the beginning of August a new brood made its appearance.
    The young birds took much to the woods as if feeling themselves more secure there than in the open fields; but before they departed they all appeared strong and minded not making long sorties into the open air over the whole creek and the fields around it. On the 8th of October not a Pewee could I find on the plantation: my little companions had all set off on their travels. For weeks afterwards, however, I saw Pewees arriving from the north and lingering a short time as if to rest, when they also moved southward.
    At the season when the Pewee returns to Pennsylvania I had the satisfaction to observe those of the cave in and about it. There again in the very same nest two broods were raised. I found several Pewees’ nests at some distance up the creek, particularly under a bridge and several others in the adjoining meadows attached to the inner part of sheds erected for the protection of hay and grain. Having caught several of these birds on the nest I had the pleasure of finding that two of them had the little ring on the leg.
    I was now obliged to go to France, where I remained two years. On my return, which happened early in August, I had the satisfaction of finding three young Pewees in the nest of the cave; but it was not