The Audubon Societies 



297 



the old bird, and strike at the food as though it was being carried along on 

 its own wings. 



The amount of food which birds, especially insectivorous species, require, 

 is always a surprise to one observing it for the first time. The classical experi- 

 ment of feeding a young Robin all the earth-worms it can eat at the time it 

 leaves the nest can scarcely be improved upon. The result with the original 



SWALLOWS ARE TAUGHT' TO CATCH INSECTS ON THE WING 



At first the young are fed like other birds but after they leave the nest, the parents 



merely fly past them and drop the food in passing 



Robin experimented with was that it consumed 14 feet of earth-worm in one 

 day. Experiments with young Crows have shown that they require at least 

 half their own weight of food each day merely to exist, and that they can 

 easily consume food equivalent to their full weight each day. Many young 

 Crows that are kept in captivity, as well as other young birds, are starved to 

 death because their owners do not realize how much food is required. They 



