34 OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS. 
old birds do from the start. Only you will notice that 
the mother bird pounds and bruises the food she gives 
to her young, tapping it on the edge of the nest or on 
a twig or the ground until it is soft enough for the 
birds to swallow without danger of scratching their 
tender throats. 
Linnets, pigeons, humming-birds, and some of the 
finches, are nurslings. The food is prepared for them by 
the parent birds, and the young are fed by the old bird’s 
bill. We imagine that the bill of the parent bird is 
the nursing-bottle. The old birds first eat food them- 
selves, and then work it over in their crops into a sort 
of paste or milky fluid. Then, when the meal is all 
ready, they alight on the edge of the nest and feed the 
babies. We have seen humming-bird mothers feed the 
babies while poised on their wings above the nest. 
Perhaps there are four or five finches all clamoring 
for breakfast, crying, and stretching their little necks 
up as high as possible. The old bird on the edge of 
the nest looks at the open mouths of all her babies, and 
begins at the one she thinks is the hungriest. She 
puts the nursing-bottle, which is her bill, far down the 
throat of the nursling, clinging fast to the nest or twig 
with her toes, and moving her bill up and down, her 
own throat throbbing all the while. 
We once saw a humming-bird feed one of her young 
ones and then fly away. During her absence the little 
birds changed places in the nest, turning completely 
around. When the mother came back to finish giving 
