H 



Our Bird Friends. 



IS a very trying 

 one for many 

 kinds of birds 

 during dry, cold 

 springs. Both 

 male and female 

 work as hard as 

 they can i'rom 

 early morn till 

 dewy eve, and 

 still llie cry is, 

 "More, please!" 

 Yonng Rooks 

 sometimes suffer 

 a considerable 

 amount of priva- 

 tion before they 

 leave tlie iiest, on account ol* droughty weather 

 cutting short theii- supply of natural food : and at 

 such times their parents will assume the habits ot 

 Carrion Crows, and steal the eggs and callow young 

 of other species for a meal. 



When I was a boy I often used to wonder how 

 birds managed to feed their broods witliout favour 

 ing one individual chick more than another. It 

 puzzled me greatly to know, for instance, if the 

 father of a fauiily remembered whether he gave 

 the grub to Dicky or Billy when he visited the 

 nest last, and how he knew he was not giving 

 it to Polly or Sally whom his Avife had jusl fed. 



I.N DKEAMI.AN]) {p. 119). 



