190 LAND BIRDS 
ber ball, such as children use for playing “jacks.” Two 
worm-like appendages, for embryo wings, dangle help- 
lessly, and two long, sprawly, weak legs are set far back 
on the ball-like body. An extremely long neck waves 
aimlessly, ending in a camel-like head, the lower man- 
dible of the wide mouth projecting beyond the upper ; 
there are black, skinny knobs for eyes and curious, large 
ear-holes. If placed on a level surface, these animated 
balls roll about helplessly, the only way of steadying 
themselves apparently being by bracing and pushing with 
their heads. As they are fed by regurgitation they will 
swallow two inches of one’s finger and hold on so tightly 
that they may be lifted up by it. Having been unable 
to complete my observations at Lake Tahoe, I once took 
two of these ungainly but interesting pets, when three 
days old, from California to Chicago, on the “ Overland,” 
feeding them with hard-boiled yolk of egg mixed with 
water, potato, and grated carrot. They were remark- 
ably well behaved, and excepting an occasional clatter- 
ing noise, somewhat between a mowing-machine and 
a nestful of bees, they were silent and throve well. In 
feeding, I first gave them the food and then allowed 
them to suck a finger, shaking them by moving it, as I 
had seen the parents do, as otherwise they would have 
been unable to swallow. As they grew older they were 
given mocking-bird food, composed largely of ants’ eggs 
and resembling their natural diet. 
When left to the parent, however, they are brought up 
in a much more hygienic fashion. For nearly three weeks 
they are fed by regurgitation, and after that time the in- 
