CARE OF OFFSPRING 229 



to be learned. But it would seem that the majority of species 

 feed their young during the first few hours after hatching on 

 regurgitated food ; later this is varied by a few insects, which 

 soon become the staple diet, to be finally succeeded, in the case 

 of grain and seed-eating birds, by a vegetable diet. 



In the case of birds of prey which capture relatively large 

 animals, the victim is borne to the nest and torn in pieces, each 

 nestling receiving its due share. But it would seem that more 

 victims are occasionally caught than is absolutely necessary, 

 inasmuch as bodies more or less putrefying are commonly found 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of the nest, and within reach 

 of the young. 



When the young remain for some time helpless within a 

 nest the work of the parents, as we have remarked, becomes 

 arduous in the extreme, and this because of the endless journeys 

 to and fro that must be made during the day to keep their 

 voracious offspring from dying of hunger. The sanitation of 

 the nest has also to be attended to, though fortunately nature 

 has provided a method by which this task is simplified, inas- 

 much as the excrement of the nestling is enclosed within a cap- 

 sule so that it may be picked up in the beak of the parents, and 

 carried away to a distance from the nest before being dropped. 

 It would seem, however, that occasionally, whether as a conse- 

 quence of a depraved appetite, or for some as yet unexplained 

 reason, this excrement is swallowed. Certainly Thrushes have 

 been seen so to dispose of this faecal matter. As the young 

 grow and gather strength, however, they relieve the parents of 

 this work of sanitation by raising the tail above the edge of the 

 nest and expelling the faces. Among the Kingfishers of the 

 Genus Alcedo, which are hatched in holes, the cloaca appears to 

 be unusually muscular, since the nestlings are enabled, by turning 

 the hinder end of the body towards the entrance to the nest, to 

 expel the faecal matter clear of the tunnel. The care indeed 

 which birds take in this matter is widely known, hence the pro- 

 verb, " no bird fouls its own nest ". But there are, however, 

 exceptions to this rule, and perhaps the most striking is that 

 afforded by the Hoopoe, a bird which in spite of its great beauty 

 seems to be animated by a strangely depraved character, seeking 

 its food among filth, and taking no sort of trouble to secure the 

 cleanliness of its nest : and the young similarly lack this instinct. 



