190 LAND BIRDS 



ber ball, such as children use for playing "jacks." Two 

 worm-like appendages, for embryo wings, dangle help- 

 lessly, and two long, sprawly, weak legs are set far back 

 on the ball-like body. An extremely long neck waves 

 aimlessly, ending in a camel-like head, the lower man- 

 dible of the wide mouth projecting beyond the upper ; 

 there are black, skinny knobs for eyes and curious, large 

 ear-holes. If placed on a level surface, these animated 

 balls roll about helplessly, the only way of steadying 

 themselves apparently being by bracing and pushing with 

 their heads. As they are fed by regurgitation they will 

 swallow two inches of one's finger and hold on so tightly 

 that they may be lifted up by it. Having been unable 

 to complete my observations at Lake Tahoe, I once took 

 two of these ungainly but interesting pets, when three 

 days old, from California to Chicago, on the " Overland," 

 feeding them with hard-boiled yolk of egg mixed with 

 water, potato, and grated carrot. They were remark- 

 ably well behaved, and excepting an occasional clatter- 

 ing noise, somewhat between a mowing-machine and 

 a nestful of bees, they were silent and throve well. In 

 feeding, I first gave them the food and then allowed 

 them to suck a finger, shaking them by moving it, as I 

 had seen the parents do, as otherwise they would have 

 been unable to swallow^ As they grew older they were 

 given mocking-bird food, composed largely of ants' eggs 

 and resembling their natural diet. 



When left to the parent, however, they are brought up 

 in a much more hygienic fashion. For nearly three weeks 

 they are fed by regurgitation, and after that time the in- 



