A WIDOW AND TWINS. 117 
in motion, as if she were swallowing. She 
brooded for thirteen minutes, absented her- 
self for three minutes, and spent six minutes 
in her usual cautionary manceuvres before 
resuming her seat. For the long interval of 
twenty-two minutes she sat still. Then she 
vanished for four minutes, and on her re- 
turn gave the young another luncheon, after 
a fast of one hour and six minutes. 
The feeding process, which I had been so 
desirous to see, was of a sort to make the 
spectator shiver. The mother, standing on 
the edge of the nest, with her tail braced 
against its side, like a woodpecker or a 
creeper, took a rigidly erect position, and 
eraned her neck until her bill was in a per- 
pendicular line above the short, wide-open, 
upraised beak of the little one, who, it must 
be remembered, was at this time hardly big- 
ger than a humble-bee. Then she thrust 
her bill for its full length down into his 
throat, a frightful-looking act, followed by 
a series of murderous gesticulations, which 
fairly made one observer’s blood run cold. 
On the day after this (on the 2d of July, 
that is to say) I climbed into the tree, in 
the old bird’s absence, and stationed myself 
