JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 29 



Putting the end in the throat of one bird, it tore off the other half 

 and presented it to another nestling. Each little bird, in turn (and 

 sometimes two strove for precedence), elevated itself to the backs of 

 the other birds. It first stretched one wing or extricated it from 

 the bird-tangle, then the other. Next it pecked vigorously at the 

 base of the tail and opened and closed its mandibles a number of 

 times as if to wet them with the oil it had obtained from the oil 

 gland on the rump. Taking each feather at the base between the 

 tips of the bill, it drew the feathers sharply through the beak. Thus 

 it provided itself with a waterproof coat ; thus it kept its feathers 

 smooth and tidy ; thus it removed, by degrees, those troublesome 

 feather cases ; thus it exercised every muscle in its small body and 

 grew strong. In the end the little wing looked as if it had been 

 pressed with a hot flatiron. The nestling remained on the backs 

 of the other birds until the parent came with food. After the old 

 bird had thrust a caterpillar or spider into the throat of the one or 

 two that seemed to respond most vehemently, she clung firmly to the 

 nest and held herself off as far as she could. The nestling then on 

 top, having been fed, deliberately stood with the front of the body 

 and head lowered, and expelled excrement which the parent bird 

 received in its beak. This act of the little bird was performed with 

 such force that the spaces between the feather tracts of the little 

 body became pink and the veins stood out full and purple particu- 

 larly on the thinly feathered extremity. I saw the young birds 

 exercise and refresh themselves ten times in the space of about a 

 half hour. The nestlings were quiet but a few instants at a time. 

 They used every muscle almost constantly. I never have seen such 

 muscular, well-groomed little birds in any other nest. The parent 

 birds both carried ordure from the nest. They received the excre- 

 ment in their beaks, bore it away to a branch, where they dropped 

 it and wiped their beaks on a limb or a lichen. No matter how 

 restless the little bird became while waiting for the care of the parent 

 bird, it never soiled the nest. At 7 o'clock at night the parent birds 

 were performing with unabated vigor the same round of duties that 

 had occupied them during the day. 



