

FEEDING OF THE YOUNG. 167 
placed within the window, then at the opposite side 
of the room. It is remarkable that although the 
female seemed regardless of danger, from her af- 
fection to her young, the male never once ventured 
within the room, and yet would constantly feed 
them while they remained at the outside of the 
window; on the contrary, the female would feed 
them at the table at which I sat, and even when I 
held the nest in my hand, provided I remained mo- 
tionless. But on moving my head one day, while . 
she was on the edge of the nest, which I held in 
my hand, she made a precipitate retreat, mistook 
the open part of the window, knocked herself 
against the glass, and laid [lay] breathless on the 
floor for some time. It is probabie the focal dis- 
tance of such minute animals’ eyes is very near, and 
that large objects are not represented perfect on the 
retina; that they do not seem to see such distinctly 
is certain, unless in motion. However, recovering 
a little, she made her escape, and in about an hour 
after I was agreeably surprised by her return; and 
she would afterward frequently feed the young 
while I held the nest in my hand. The male bird 
constantly attended the female in her flight to and 
fro, but never ventured beyond the window-frame, 
nor did he latterly ever appear with food in his bill. 
He never uttered any note but when the female was 
out of sight, and then only a small chirp. At first 
there were ten young in the nest; but probably, for 
want of the male’s assistance in procuring food, 
two died. The visits of the female were generally 
repeated in the space of a minute and a half or two 
minutes, or, upon an average, thirty-six times in an 
hour; and this continued full sixteen hours in a 
day, which, if equally divided between the eight 
young ones, each would receive seventy-two feeds 
in the day; the whole amounting to five hundred 
and seventy-six. From examination of the food, 
which by accident now and then dropped into the 
