174 Mr. S. A. Lawrence and Mr. R. T. Littlejohns,



and we were surprised to find that this day the food consisted almost

wholly of the sticky Loranthus berries, devoid of the outer case.

Insects were brought only about once in each six visits. The berries

were obtained very quickly from mistletoe growing on the trees near

by, most of which were badly affected with the parasite. The

female usually brought one fruit only at a time, while the male

frequently brought two, and sometimes three. The parents them¬

selves also fed on the berries, both when among the mistletoe and

when prevented for any length of time from feeding the chicks.

After taking several photographs of the parent birds at the nest we

removed the young, in order to make some exposures under less

difficult conditions. The adults soon became used to the change,

and perched on a convenient stick near the imprisoned brood. They

had lost all fear of the camera and of ourselves, and took berries

from a small mistletoe branch held out to them. We were then

able to see exactly how the berries were extracted from the case.

We already knew, by observing the empty cup-shaped portions of

the cases attached to the mistletoe, that the berry was extracted

without the berry being first plucked from the parasite. We now

found that the ripe berry was taken crosswise in the bird’s bill,

and the soft case split in halves by pressure. The free portion of

the case was then dropped, leaving the white berry protruding from

the half still attached to the branch. By pressure of this remaining

half between the mandibles the seed was forced out sufficiently to

allow of its being easily taken in the bill. The birds could not be

persuaded to take unripe berries. During the time that berries

were to be obtained so near at hand we noticed that one of the

fledgelings, much weaker than the others, was neglected time after

time when they were being fed. We took pity on the weakling and

placed it where we thought it would be more likely to receive

attention Evidently, however, the neglect was intentional, and it

was fed very little. At the time we were inclined to think this

apparent neglect accounted for the bird being a weakling, but it

occurred to us afterwards that possibly it was fed on insects only,

and passed over when berries were brought. This would appear

likely from the fact that all were fed on insects when very young,

and on berries only as they became larger and stronger. The



