Vol. XXII 

 1905 



Wheelock, Regurgitative Feeding of Nestlings. C 'j 



that of a caged German Canary. Hard boiled egg was swallowed 

 by the adult and in about six minutes was passed on to the young 

 in the form of a white mass resembling very moist library paste. 

 This process was continued until the eyes were open and the pin- 

 feathers showed plainly. American Goldfinches (Astragalinus 

 tristis) nesting in July in the crotch of a sapling at Glencoe, Illi- 

 nois, were next watched and fed their young by regurgitation of 

 husked and partly digested seeds of the thistle. It was possible 

 to see the food given and an examination of the crops immedi- 

 ately afterwards proved its character. It looked like cooked 

 farina. These birds were fed by regurgitation during the entire 

 period of remaining in the nest. Toward the last the character 

 of the food changed in being less affected by digestion of the 

 adult, that is, less mushy and glutinous, but the seeds were always 

 hulled and softened, probably with saliva of the adult. 



The nest of a Vesper Sparrow (Pocecetes gramineus) was dis- 

 covered May first on the ground on a bare sandy knoll in a field 

 at Evanston, Illinois. Sparse grass blades and thin lichen-like 

 moss covered the earth, and in a slight hollow at the root of a 

 clump of wild strawberries lay the nest. It contained three spar- 

 row eggs and two eggs of the Cowbird, all of which hatched the 

 next day. I removed the Cowbird's. By crouching behind 

 bushes at the foot of a tree twenty feet distant, it was possible 

 to see much that took place at the nest. The parent birds were 

 fully aware of my presence and the male flew scolding to a branch 

 in my view with a large insect in his bill. As soon as he fancied 

 that he had attracted my attention to himself he dodged down 

 behind a weed about thirty feet from the nest site, swallowed the 

 bug and reappeared with a great show of courage. I turned from 

 watching him just in time to see the female sneaking away from 

 the real nest and knew that she had fed the little ones. An 

 examination of their crops showed the contents to be a slimy 

 mass, pale cream in color, evidently vegetable matter. Examina- 

 tion after subsequent feedings proved the food to be largely weed 

 seeds, always hulled and partly digested. On the third day the 

 larvae of some insects unknown to me, macerated soft parts of 

 grasshoppers and spiders, all partially digested, were found in the 

 crops at different times. One of the examinations made on the 



