c8 Wheelock, Regurgitative Feeding of Nestlings. [^"^ 



fourth day revealed part of a grasshopper in a nearly fresh condi- 

 tion. Evidently, feeding by regurgitation was giving place to 

 fresh food. But the next feeding was by regurgitation again. 

 By the morning of this day (the fourth) the little slits between 

 the eyelids were well open and pin-feathers were showing along 

 the feather tracks. All feedings recorded on the sixth day were 

 of fresh food, mostly insects. No record was kept after the sixth 

 day. 



A pair of Chipping Sparrows {Spizella socialis) nesting in a 

 thornbush at Cedar Lake, Indiana, May 16, were surprisingly 

 bold in living their home life under our close surveillance. The 

 wee brown mother allowed me to touch her when brooding her 

 eggs, and after the tiny bits of bird life were hatched she fed 

 them, by regurgitation, within four or five feet of the watchers, 

 eight times in two hours. The unusually small amount of food 

 found in the gullet of the young, however, convinced me that the 

 meals were given too hastily for the best interests of all concerned. 

 For the first two days the contents seemed to be soft, creamy 

 white, very much like that fed the young canaries described pre- 

 viously. I am free to confess that all inspection of the food in 

 this case was external only ; for, so tiny were the nestlings and 

 so thin the skin of their throats that I feared to use even the 

 feather test lest I injure the delicate membrane. However, the 

 actions of both adults at the nest could not be mistaken. After 

 alighting on or near the edge, the one who had come to feed the 

 young would seem to look at them for some seconds as if trying 

 to decide which one to supply first. This is the interpretation 

 often given by popular writers, but the real cause of hesitation is 

 shown in the swelling of the throat as the food rises to be disgorged. 

 As soon as all is ready, the act of feeding is too quick for even an 

 'instantaneous' to catch. Mr. Ned Dearborn, whose part in that 

 valuable work ' Birds in their Relation to Man ' is well known to 

 you, is the only one I know of who has succeeded in photograph- 

 ing it. He has two fine negatives of the Goldfinches feeding by 

 regurgitation, but .for this one success has hundreds of failures to 

 report. As for the Chipping Sparrows, a camera record of the 

 act is, I believe, impossible. It is quicker when the food is regur- 

 gitated than later when fresh insects are brought, which must be 



