320 Perry, Vesper Sparrow and Hermit Thrush. LJuly 



any of the nestlings to swallow a green hairy larva, and in the midst 

 of his difficulty the female's call of "neink, neink" sounded. The 

 male picked up the larva that had fallen from his mouth, and 

 hurried away, just as the female reached the nest. After she had 

 left, he came back with the same caterpillar he had taken away. 

 I noted only one exception to this rule that the parent at the nest 

 leave at the approach of the other. This time the male reached 

 the nest carrying a large katydid in his mandibles. He spread out 

 his wings and raised his crown feathers as if in anger, and pecked 

 at the brooding female. She' took the katydid from his mandibles 

 and left by the usual route. 



I thought the young Hermit Thrushes a little handsomer than the 

 sparrow nestlings. They had long, black, downy feathers on the 

 dorsal tract; yellow skins; and orange linings to their mouths. 

 They began to make a faint call, "Tsit" on the second day. By 

 the time they were four days old, the wing pins had pierced the skin, 

 and all the other tracts on the body were pronounced. Their eyes 

 began to open on the fifth day. They began to preen their feathers 

 on the ninth day. By the eleventh day they were much mottled 

 birds. The feathers were fuscous, and ochraceous buff, on the 

 upper parts; their tail feathers all buff; the wing feathers buff 

 on one vane, and ochraceous on the others; the throat and breast 

 were streaked with black; and the under parts were creamy white. 

 As they grew older, they were just as greedy as their coarser cousins, 

 the sparrows, and screamed and stretched out their bodies toward 

 the parent bringing the food. Table IV shows the variation in 

 their weights from day to day. 



Table IV. 

 Weight of young in grams. 



Date July 30 July 31 Aug. 1 Aug. 2 Aug. 3 Aug. 4 



