Home Life of the Brown Thrasher. 91 



sibly waiting for the appearance of an excreta sac. In the case 

 of the nestling voiding the excreta, there were usually some 

 premonitory signs: viz., general uneasiness, ruffling the feath- 

 ers, and flirting the tail. Then followed the elevating of the 

 posterior end of the body, and -as the sac came away the pa- 

 rent bird seized it and cither devoured it or carried it away. 

 See Plgure 5. 



In regard to disposing of the excreta there did not seem 

 to be any constant behavior. During the first four days of 

 observation, the most of it was devoured by the parents at 

 the nest or carried a short distance and swallowed. The fol- 

 lowing table will show the total number of times the nest was 

 cleaned. It will be seen from this table that the work of 

 sanitation was about equally divided between the male and 

 female. Compare Table VI with Table VII, which shows 

 the number of times the excreta was devoured by each of 

 the parents : 



TABLE VL 

 Total number of times the nest was cleaned. 



Date. By male. By female. Total. 



June 23 9 3 12 



June 24 5 4 9 



June 26 20 14 34 



June 27 18 38 56 



June 28 18 18 36 



June 29 3 3 



Total 70 80 150 



TABLE VII. 



Number of times the excreta was devoured. 



Date. By male. By female. Total. 



June 23 9 3 12 



June 24 4 3 7 



June 26 1 3 4 



June 27 3 5 8 



June 28 1 1 



June 29 



Total 18 14 32 



