20 



IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 



marks.- "The young run after the parents, on the ground, for 

 several days after they leave the nest." Similar and corrobor- 

 ative observations have since been made on this point although 

 the writer was unable to follow up this phase of the study to 

 his own satisfaction. 



TABLE IX— TABULAR SUMMARY 



Date No. hrs. observation No. times food was brought to 



young 



Total 38 hrs. 29 min. 176 



GENERAL SUMMARY 



1. Observations on the young in the nest were conducted 

 over a period of thirty-eight hours and twenty-nine minutes 

 between July 31 and August 8. During this time 176 feedings 

 were administered. 



2. Brooding was carried on only by the female. 



3. At no time during our observations were the young in- 

 dulged with a vegetarian diet, although the adults were seen 

 to eat blueberries on at least two occasions. The food of the 

 nestlings was entirely of insects either in the larval or adult 

 stage. 



4. On many occasions the parent bird fed more than one 

 nestling. At no time was feeding by regurgitation observed. 



5. At no time during our observation was the male hermit 

 thrush heard to sing, although the familiar high-pitched call 

 very like that of the cedar waxwing was given often. 



6. The nestlings did not always void the excreta sac immedi- 

 ately after being fed, sometimes not for several minutes or 

 even longer after the act of feeding occurred. 



7. During approximately the first half of the nestling period 

 the adults swallowed the excreta sac. During the latter half of 



2 Audubon, John James, American Ornithological Biography, I, 1831, 303. 



