DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED 347 
male and female were busy hunting 
some sort of white larve that they 
obtained from an old stump. The adults 
did not swallow these, but carried them 
in their bills, — which convinced me that 
the nestlings were at least five days old. 
For my own observation proves that the 
young of perching birds (as well as 
Macrochires and most Pict) are fed by 
regurgitation for four or five days, the 
length of time varying in different spe- 
cies and depending on the kind of food 
brought. Birds eating large insects are 
fed on raw food sooner than those 
feeding upon minute insect life, such as 
ant eggs, gnats, etc., and seed-eaters last 
of all. 
In the case of the Nuthatches the 
entire brood left the nest, 
June 16, so that they must 
have been two weeks old ei 
when discovered. They 
were fed by the parents 
for some time after their 
début, and most of the 
time were kept well up in 
the thick branches of a live pine 
tree, where we could hear but 
could not see them, 
730, Pyemy NuTHATCH. 
** Both birds worked busily carrying feathers.” 
