CA Wheelock, Regurgitative Feeding of Nestlings. If* 



103. Sialia sialis. Bluebird. — Crawford Co., Sept. 12, saw a number 

 in the Kirtland Warbler region (Wood). Oscoda Co., June 13, Aug. 17, 

 occasional; July 6, frequent; Sept. 12, very common, breeding, young 

 seen. Alcona Co., Aug. 19, frequent. Iosco Co., Aug. 22, frequent. 



University Museum, Univ. of Michigan, 

 October, 1904. 



REGURGITATIVE FEEDING OF NESTLINGS. 



BY IRENE G. WHEELOCK. 1 



My claim upon your attention this morning lies in the fact that 

 many years of field work, averaging three to five months each 

 year, have been spent about equally divided between California 

 and Illinois in obtaining the data which I shall present for your 

 consideration. I am confident that it is accurate, and I believe 

 that it is new. The field is large, it is practically unworked, and 

 it offers a rich opportunity for original research. 



Realizing that there is time to present only a small proportion 

 of the mass of data at hand, I will pack facts closely and select 

 from my records species representing as many families as possi- 

 ble. Of course it is necessary to record many broods of each spe~ 

 cies before we can claim that any peculiarity observed is a habit 

 of that species. Having records of one hundred and eighty-seven 

 broods {not species), I claim that every brood hatched in a naked 

 or semi-naked condition was fed by regurgitation from a period 

 varying from one day to four weeks. To those critics who believe 

 that their own observations prove this statement untrue I would 

 address two questions: First, Have you determined accurately the 

 age of the brood at the date of the record? Because some birds 

 regurgitate for one day only. 



Second, Just what is understood by " Regurgitation I " As defined 

 by Worcester, Webster and others it means "a flowing back," and 



1 Read at the Twenty-second Congress of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, Cambridge, Mass., November 29, 1904. 



