414 LAND BIRDS 
scolded from morning until night in loud “ chacks,” 
watching all who came and went in the vicinity. 
Worms, slugs, black beetles, wingless crickets, grass- 
hoppers, and dragonflies were given to the young at the 
rate of sixteen in twenty minutes, distributed among the 
four, — not so large an average as in the case of most 
young birds, but there was but one parent to forage. 
For the first three days, at least, the food was. first 
swallowed by the adult and afterwards given to the 
young by regurgitation, but after that they were fed on 
the fresh insects. 
The nestlings were a soft pinky gray when they first 
broke their shells, and the second day developed thin 
mouse-colored down on head and back. In five days 
their eyes opened, and the lines of submerged pinfeathers 
were plainly visible. On the twelfth day the little 
feathered ends had burst through the sheaths. And 
now began an alarming process of stretching and pecking 
and wriggling, 
alarming because in this case it seemed 
as though the nestlings must be crowded out into the 
cold water below. But none of them ever was so 
crowded, and after nearly three weeks in the nest they 
flew out into some low bushes on the shore. Here they 
were fed by both parents for some days longer, being 
coaxed into the woods near by and cared for devotedly 
until they had learned to forage for themselves. 
As soon as the young are able to take the trip the 
flocks of Brewer Blackbirds pass on to other feeding 
grounds. In August and September they are found in 
the high Sierra Nevada mountains and also on the ocean 
