MISTLETOE BIRD, WOOD SWALLOW 



so want a picture of him, too. Not to be easily beaten, we 

 visited the spot again the following week-end. We found 

 the young birds well grown, able to call lustily, and to cause 

 bulging of the soft walls of their home in their 

 anxiety to be fed. The male bird now exceeded 

 all our wildest hopes by taking quite an active part in the 

 nourishment of the impatient young ones, and we were soon 

 exposing plates in sweet contentment. On this occasion 

 also the brood was fed exclusively on insects. 



Two days later we were again making nuisances of our- 

 selves before the sun was well over the ridge. We exposed 

 many plates this morning also, and were surprised to find 

 that the diet of the young ones had taken a change. Almost 

 the whole of the food now brought to the nest consisted of 

 the sticky Lorarithus (or Mistletoe) berries devoid of the 

 outer case. Many of the trees in the neighbourhood were 

 badly affected with this parasite. Later on we removed 

 the young ones from their comfortable quarters and experi- 

 mented. It was not long before we were able to photo- 

 graph the female bird feeding her young quite uncon- 

 cernedly on our hands. Similar photographs of the male 

 bird could later have been obtained had it not been that 

 the advent of some dark clouds made camera work no longer 

 practicable. 



The photographs of the male and the female Mistletoe 

 Bird at the nest will disclose the curious fact that while the 

 female invariably clung to the front of the nest when feed- 

 ing the young, the male always performed the same duty 

 by hanging head down from the branch above. We 

 attempted by all the ruses possible to alter this habit of the 

 male, but he remained adamant. 



Our observations of the bird on this and some few sub- 

 sequent occasions, have led us to believe that it is respon- 

 sible in no slight degree for the spread of the parasitic 

 mistletoe. 



Another interesting question we were able to settle was 

 the manner in which the sticky berry was extracted from 

 the casing. This casing was never carried by the bird, 

 and we wished to know how it was got rid of. The trust- 

 fulness of our subjects during the later stages of our obser- 

 vations enabled us to see this clearly. When the young 

 ones had been removed from the nest and were being fed 

 by the parents quite close to us, we procured a branch of 



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