VoL XXIIH Wheelock, Regurgitative Feeding of Nestlings. 6j 



whether accidentally or otherwise, but I never found any trace of 

 fruit in the crops. 



More interesting than the Waxwings, because less common, is 

 its western cousin, the Phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens). In 

 feeding and nesting habits these birds are so like the Waxwings 

 that they may be taken as a type of both branches of the family. 

 The brood whose record I offer here were hatched on June 2 in 

 a nest built by the male in an old oak tree near Pasadena, Cali- 

 fornia. They were naked except for a thin covering of down on 

 head and back, and were about the size of newly hatched Red- 

 winged Blackbirds, which they also resemble in color. The adult 

 Phainopeplas were soon reconciled to the presence of a motionless 

 observer, and came to the nest freely after the first few hours. 

 On the first day, sixty-eight meals were recorded between one and 

 six p. m., and all by regurgitation. The adults alighted on the 

 edge of the nest with the gullet visibly swollen and, after a moment 

 of waiting, fed the little ones in the same manner recorded of the 

 Waxwings. 



On the second clay, in three and one half hours, the male 

 brought food twenty-eight times and the female twenty-one 

 times. The third and fourth days registered an increased fre- 

 quency in the visits of the male, on an average about two out 

 of three meals being given by him, and all feedings by both parents 

 were regurgitative. The intervals of feeding varied with the 

 time of day, being shortest early in the morning when they were 

 sometimes only five minutes apart. 



For the first four clays the craw showed only insect food, always 

 in a partially digested condition ; but on the fifth day at least one 

 feeding was of pepper tree berries regurgitated in a fairly fresh 

 state. From the sixth day on, part of the meals were regurgitated 

 and part not. Large insects were given fresh ; berries by eructa- 

 tion. The craws were examined once a day until the nestlings 

 were twelve days old when, on leaving that locality, I was obliged 

 to close the record. Up to that time the contents showed large 

 insects and berries of various sorts, in about equal proportions. 



California Bush-Tits {Psaltriparus minimus cattfomicus) are about 

 the most fascinating feathered mites of my acquaintance. A paper 

 twice as long as this could not do justice to all their tricks and 



