FEEDING OF THE YOUNG. 161 
larger birds, which are at all times omnivorous, such 
as the magpie (Pica caudata, Ray), exhibit more 
carnivorous propensities than usual. Speaking of 
the magpie, Mr. Knapp says, “‘ When a hatch is ef- 
fected, the number of young demand a larger quan- 
tity of food than is easily obtained, and whole 
broods of our ducklings, whenever they stray from 
the yard, are conveyed to the nest.””* 
The same delightful writer gives an account of 
the rearing of a brood of tomtits, which shows that 
smaller birds are no less provident with regard to 
the quantity of food furnished to their young than 
the eagle or the magpie. “I was lately,” says he, 
“exceedingly pleased in witnessing the maternal 
care and intelligence of this bird ; for the poor thing 
had its young ones in the hole of a wall, and the 
nest had been nearly all drawn out of the crevice 
by the paw of a cat, and part of its brood devoured. 
In revisiting its family, the bird discovered a por- 
tion of it remaining, though wrapped up and hidden 
in the tangled moss and feathers of their bed, and 
it then drew the whole of the nest back into the 
place from whence it had been taken, unrolled and 
resettled the remaining little ones, fed them with 
the usual attentions, and finally succeeded in rear- 
ing them. ‘The parents of even this reduced fami- 
ly laboured with great perseverance to supply its 
wants, one or the other of them bringing a grub, 
caterpillar, or some insect, at intervals of less than 
a minute, through the day, and probably in the ear- 
lier part of the morning more frequently ; but if we 
allow that they brought food on the whole every 
minute for fourteen hours, and provided for their 
own wants also, it will admit of perhaps a thou- 
sand grubs a day for the requirements of one, and 
that a diminished brood; and give us some com- 
prehension of the infinite number requisite for the 
* Journal of a Naturalist, p. 133, third edition. 
