198 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



The Wood Thrush family, however, more than 

 repaid Shan for his other failures. Watching 

 them and photographing them once or twice a day 

 from the blind, the boy had a splendid opportunity 

 to see how much they ate and how extraordinarily 

 fast they grew. 



The growth of young birds is like magic. On 

 the first day, the baby birds doubled in weight, 

 they more than trebled on the second day and al- 

 most quadrupled on the third. On the ninth day, 

 the first-born fledgeling was nine times as big as 

 on the day he was born. If a human baby grew 

 at that rate, when three weeks old it would weigh 

 as much as a good-sized man. 



The Wood Thrush feeds its little ones with 

 small insects, direct, returning to the nest and 

 dropping the morsel directly into the gaping beak 

 of the hungry infant. The baby Thrush, there- 

 fore, is able to digest real food almost as soon as 

 it is hatched. Not all birds are so fortunate. 



Young Pigeons, or squabs, have to be fed, at 

 first, on a regular infant food prepared by the 

 mother and called *' Pigeon's milk." This is not 

 true milk, but a whitish substance produced in the 

 Pigeon's crop. Later this is mixed with food, and 

 when the baby Pigeons are a week old they are 



