HOME LIFE OF BIRDS 



35 



Feeding the young. Birds eat enormous amounts 

 of food and grow with remarkable rapidity. Obser- 

 vations made on young birds show that they may 

 eat their own weight of food in a day and increase in 

 weight fifty per cent. One observer watched a nest 

 of cedar waxwings and weighed the young each day 

 till they left the nest. He found that the weight of 

 one nestling was doubled on the first day, more than 

 trebled on the second, and nearly quadrupled on the 

 third. By the twelfth day it had increased in weight 

 thirteen fold, and was nearly three times as long as 

 when first hatched. 



The parents usually begin to feed the young at 

 about sunrise and continue till sunset, making a 

 working day of about fifteen hours. Observations 



