296 Bird - Lore 



several different methods of transferring the food. In birds like the Pelicans 

 and Cormorants, which bring back fish in their throat-pouches, the old bird 

 merely opens its bill and permits the young to rummage around inside. Some- 

 times they almost disappear down the throat of the old bird. With the Herons, 

 as shown in the photograph of the Least Bittern, the old bird turns its head 

 on the side and the young grasps it with a scissors-like action, dilating its 

 lower mandibles so as to catch whatever comes out of the throat of the old 

 bird. To the onlooker, it appears like a very clumsy performance, but little 

 food seems ever to be wasted by spilling. Young Mourning Doves have 

 swellings at the corner of the mouth which the old birds press when they inter- 

 lock bills to inspire the proper swallowing action of the young. I once 

 tried to raise a crippled young Dove and could not get it to swallow anything, 

 even that was forcibly put into its throat, until I discovered the nervous 

 adjustment between the swellings and the throat muscles. After that it was 

 easy, for I merely had to touch the swellings and it was like pressing a button. 

 The little bird's mouth flew open and the throat muscles commenced to work 

 even before the food entered the bird's mouth. 



With all birds there is a nervous adjustment which prevents over-feeding. 

 Birds do not feed their young in rotation, as one might expect, but ordinarily 

 they feed the hungriest one first and continue to feed him until some other one 

 gets hungrier and stretches its neck further and cries louder. This might 

 result in overfeeding the largest young one but, fortunately, when the young 

 bird has had enough, its throat muscles refuse to work. So after each feeding 

 the old bird looks down into the throat of the young one (the young bird, if 

 well, keeps its mouth open for food as long as the parent is about), and if 

 the last bug is not promptly swallowed, she takes it out again and gives it 

 to one of the other young. It is this habit of feeding the one with the longest 

 neck and widest mouth first that results in the fatalities to the rightful young 

 in a nest where there is a young Cowbird, for the Cowbird always has the 

 longest neck and the widest mouth and gets all the food. 



After the young have left the nest the old birds are not so particular about 

 putting the food far down the throat of the young, for the young bird has soon 

 to catch insects or find food for itself. It is interesting to watch a family of 

 young Swallows learning to catch insects on the wing. So long as they are in 

 the nest, they are fed like other young, having the food placed far down their 

 throats, but once they leave the nest, such caution ceases. It is but a short 

 time before the old bird merely sweeps by the young one and drops the food 

 into the open mouth without stopping, and when the youngsters are able to 

 fly, the same operation is employed in full flight. It is as though the old 

 birds were teaching the young to catch things out of the air. Young Duck 

 Hawks learn in much the same way to pounce on birds in full flight. When 

 the young are able to fly, the old birds merely swing by the nesting-ledge 

 with the food in their talons, and the young ones fly out, turn over beneath 



