254 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



fed. This has happened again — and yet again — but 

 now, this last time, the parent bird has entered the 

 nest. The time before, whilst the one parent was 

 hanging there, and, I think, giving the chick some- 

 thing, the other flew in to the wall, and clung there, 

 about six inches off, seeming to watch the scene 

 with pleased attention. Yet, though food does, as 

 I now feel sure, sometimes pass in these visits, at 

 others, as it seems to me, only remarks do. At 

 this stage of the argument, one of the young 

 birds projects its tail through the entrance-hole, and 

 voids its excrement. Under this nest and another 

 one, about two feet from it, there is a heap of 

 excrement on the slanting roof of the greenhouse 

 below ; an interesting thing to see, and cleanly if 

 rightly considered, yet unsightly I must confess — 

 that part of it, alone, exists for the feminine eye. 

 Out comes another tail, now, and the heap is in- 

 creased. In this pretty way the nest is kept pure and 

 wholesome. 



" Now I have had a fine view of the feeding, having 

 moved into a better position. The parent bird 

 clung to the nest, and one of the chicks, thrusting 

 out its head from the aperture, opened its mouth, 

 so that it looked like a little round funnel. Into 

 this the parent bird thrust not only her bill, but the 

 upper part of her head as well, and the chick's mouth 

 closing upon it, there instantly began, on the part of 

 both, those motions which accompany the process of 

 regurgitation, as it may be witnessed with pigeons, 

 and as I have witnessed it with nightjars. These 

 becoming more and more violent, the parent bird 

 was, at last, drawn by the chick, who kept pulling 



