42 NEWS FROM THE BIRDS. 



writers on American birds, has described the 

 process in his book entitled, The Foot-Path 

 Way. He has w^atched it more than once. 

 He says that the little bird opens its mouth, 

 and then the mother thrusts her long, slender 

 bill down its throat as far as she can, like a 

 ramrod into a gun barrel, after which she goes 

 through a series of forward plunges that are 

 really terrible to witness. In this way she 

 pumps the honey she has gathered, out of her 

 own stomach, and forces it into the stomach of 

 her baby. This process is know^n by a long, 

 hard name — too hard a one for some of our 

 young readers to manage — regurgitation. 



Bird .babies are as greedy as any human 

 babies you ever saw. All the use they seem 

 to have for their parents is to supply them 

 with food — to be their caterers, as it were. 

 "Brownie," the young thrasher I took from 

 the nest to raise by hand, was so greedy that 

 he would leap up and gulp down not only the 

 food I offered him, but also the end of the 

 finger on which I held it. And you wouldn't 

 believe how much he needed to satisfy his 

 ravenous appetite. He reminded me of a 

 growing boy of fourteen, who eats all the 

 bread on the plate, all the potatoes, cabbage, 

 and pie near at hand, and then clamors for 



