256 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



their beaks. I had expected to see the swifts 

 bring insects to their babies, but my closest 

 scrutiny failed to discover anything in their 

 beaks when they arrived, or when they went 

 upon the nest. Under the new conditions, I 

 watched with double care and attention. At 

 first, for nearly an hour, the birds were too 

 much disturbed by the glass and fishing rod to 

 settle upon the nest. They came close to it 

 and chattered, but flew nervously and noisily, as 

 though to frighten away the intruder. After a 

 while they grew quieter, and finally one arrived 

 with food. She came to the nest, mounted 

 its edge, and leaned toward the open-mouthed 

 young. Then she moved violently, and seemed 

 to hang over the infants, to pound them, shake 

 them, and push them back and forth in a sin- 

 gularly rough and unkind way. Seeing all these 

 things by double reflection and in the dim light 

 of the chimney, I could not be certain of details, 

 but all that I saw reminded me of descriptions I 

 had heard and read of feeding young birds by 

 refrurcfitation, while nothinof that went on looked 

 like the quiet and matter-of-fact process of drop- 

 ping a fly into a little bird's gaping mouth. It 

 seemed to me that the parent inserted her bill 

 in the young one's throat, and then presumably 

 pumped into it, by the violent motions which 

 she made, a portion of the food previously swal- 



