WOOD AND WASTE 139 



photographic subject. His movements, for 

 one thing, are much more easily caught, 

 and the parent bird's incessant feeding of 

 the young gives many opportunities. When 

 the youngsters are but a few days old, one 

 or other of the parents is practically always 

 on the nest. The parents then take it in 

 turn to sit, the cock bird sounding forth 

 his coming and whistling oK his wife, and 

 he in his turn vacating the nest when she 

 arrives with supplies. The young are fed 

 with moths, spiders, caterpillars, etc., all 

 crushed and dead. They are fed fairly, as 

 far as can be judged, but probably the 

 strongest and hungriest gets rather more 

 than its rightful portion. 



After placing, or rather stuffing in the 

 morsel to a nestling's mouth it is some- 

 times found to be too large, and whilst the 

 body of it has gone, the long legs or wdngs 

 still project like antennae. This condition 

 of things is then considered judiciously for 

 a moment by the feeding parent, and the 

 morsel often withdrawn and given to a 

 hungrier or larger mouthed child. Mean- 

 while the unlucky loser still continues to 



