300 LAND BIRDS 
was carefully cut in one side of the nest and a cautious 
peep taken. <A wriggling mass of pinkish heads, wings, 
and legs lay cuddled in the downiest of feather beds. 
They seemed even smaller than the young humming- 
birds, and were certainly less than an inch long. Each 
little head was triangular in shape, with a mere yellow 
ridge at the point for a bill, and skin-covered knobs for 
eyes. The slit in the nest we carefully sewed shut 
again. Before we had gone three yards the parents 
were there, and the male had gone inside to the nest- 
lings. A careful watch proved that for the first four 
days neither of the parents brought visible food in the 
bill, and it is fair to record them as feeding by regurgita- 
tion for that length of time at least. (See Foreword.) 
On the sixth day the young bush-tits were covered 
with a hairlike grayish white down, and had quadrupled 
in size. This was the last observation of that family 
I was able to make. Meanwhile several other broods of 
Bush-tits had flown and were being cared for in the 
neighboring shrubbery by the adults, although seem- 
ing well able to feed themselves. An old nest that 
I secured measured ten inches in length, four and a 
half in diameter at the bottom, and the doorway was 
just the size of a dime; a nickle was too large to pass 
through it. 
The call-note of the Bush-tit is commonly described as 
“seritt, scritt,’ very weak and thin. Aside from this, 
the male gives voice to a conversational warble, quite 
in keeping with the diminutive size of the bird. This 
