Vol. XXII 

 1905 



Wheelock, Regurgitative Feeding of Nestlings. 6^ 



quickly and delivered the food it had brought in its throat. Twelve 

 examinations of the craws were made on the first day and fourteen 

 on the second day. The only difference was in the slightly more 

 solid condition of the food on the second day. Ants, gnats and 

 small flies had been given, all partially digested and mixed with an 

 unusual amount of saliva. Large insects were brought at inter- 

 vals on the afternoon of the fourth day, but toward night the feed- 

 ings by regurgitation were resumed. This was proved by the 

 change in the character of the food found in the craw as well as 

 by noting the condition of the adults' throat and bill as they came 

 to the nest. At this time the heads and backs of the young were 

 covered with a thin down, the skin had turned darker and the eyes 

 were commencing to open. 



On the sixth day ten regurgitative feedings and sixteen fresh 

 meals were recorded in two hours from four to six p. m. There 

 was no further record until the tenth day when four regurgitative 

 and eleven fresh feedings were given in one hour from four to five 

 p. m. On the eleventh day this brood came to an untimely end 

 through the fall of the nest in a hard rain storm, and the record 

 was not finished until 1901, when I saw another brood fed by 

 regurgitation on the day of leaving the nest. 



Study of the nesting habits of a Hutton Vireo ( Vireo huttoni) 

 at San Jose, California, proved to me how like this western species 

 is to his eastern cousin, the Warbling. The records of the two 

 are almost identical. The dainty cradle of the Hutton Vireo was 

 swung from the lower branches of a sapling less than seven feet 

 from the ground on the side of a hill. By sitting opposite and a 

 few feet higher I was able to see most that went on in the vireo 

 household. The four eggs, hatched May 14, had been incubated 

 only eight days. At ten a. m., when I began the record, both 

 adults were busy supplying food to the young and, during two hours, 

 visited the nest sixteen times, brooding a good deal between times. 

 Every feeding was by regurgitation. External examination of the 

 crops showed the thin, pasty contents usual on the first day. I 

 can describe this in no better way than to say it is like thin, whit- 

 ish library paste, occasionally streaked with darker color. 



On the second day, May 15, meals were given by regurgitation 

 nineteen times between ten and twelve a. m. The nestlings, 



