PHASES OF BIRD LIFE. 199 
They were so famished that I hurried away lest they 
should go to preying on one another, for they would 
sometimes greedily seize one another by the bills or 
heads, and try to gobble one another down. Inci- 
dents like this prove that the old birds must be on 
the jump every moment to procure a sufficient sup- 
ply of food for their young. Even after they have 
left the nest, the juvenile members of the family 
must be fed for several weeks. As long as mamma 
and papa will get their luncheons for them, they will 
make little effort to help themselves. I have seen 
the dainty little accentor feeding a great, overgrown 
mossback of a cow-bunting, which had to “juke” 
down to her like a giant to a dwarf to receive the 
morsel she offered him. What a drudgery it must 
have been to collect victuals enough to fill his 
capacious maw! ‘Think of a toil-worn, care-fretted 
little mother feeding a strapping boy that will not 
work ! 
Moreover, adult birds often are kept busy for 
hours supplying their own craving for food. One 
April day a hooded warbler, natty little beau, near 
an old gravel-bank in the woods, was watched by 
me for an hour anda half. During that time he 
must have caught an insect almost every minute, 
and sometimes no sooner had he gulped down one 
than he made a swift dash for another. Had he 
not been so very, very handsome, I should have 
dubbed him a gourmand. 
At certain seasons of the year what an active life 
the red-headed woodpeckers are compelled to lead, 
