die A WIDOW AND TWINS. 
was somewhat laughable. The mother 
perched beside one of the young birds, put 
her bill into his, and then apparently fell 
off the limb head first. We thought she 
had not finished, and looked to see her re- 
turn; but she flew away, and after a while 
the truth dawned upon us. Thereafter, un- 
less our observation was at fault, she used 
whichever method happened to suit her con- 
venience. If she found a choice collection 
of spiders,! for instance, she brought them 
in her throat (as cedar-birds carry cherries), 
to save trips; if she had only one or two, 
she retained them between her mandibles. 
It will be understood, 1 suppose, that we 
did not see the food in its passage from one 
bird to the other, — human eyesight would 
hardly be equal to work of such nicety; but 
the two bills were put together so frequently 
and in so pronounced a manner as to leave 
us in no practical uncertainty about what 
was going on. Neither had I any doubt 
that the change was connected in some way 
1 Mr. E. H. Eames reports (in The Auk, vol. vii. p. 
287) that, on dissecting a humming-bird, about two days 
old, he found sixteen young spiders in its throat, and a 
pultaceous mass of the same in its stomach. 
