WHAT BIRDS CARRY IN THEIR POCKETS. 21 
no clothes are hatched in the warmest nests, and are 
close to the mother’s breast almost all the time, until 
their clothes have time to grow. ‘They do not have oil 
in their pockets until they have feathers to put it on. 
A baby bird has such a wide mouth that he looks 
very odd. But then, you see, his mouth is wide on 
purpose, so that the parent birds can drop the food in 
quickly. If the parents had to hunt around to find six 
or eight little mouths, many a nice bug or worm would 
get away and the babies go hungry. 
Look into a nest and see that four or five open bills 
are as much of the young birds as you can catch sight 
of above the edge of the nest. Each is trying to open 
