V0l 'i^f n l Wheelock, RegurgUative Feeding of Nestlings. 69 



feather. Both adults came to the nest at frequent intervals through- 

 out the first day, but never with any food visible in bill. These 

 conditions continued up to the eighth day when the first trace of 

 fresh solid appeared in the crops. By this time the adults were 

 sufficiently brave to come to the nest with us in sight, fifty feet 

 away. On the ninth day the female was seen to bring insects 

 eleven times and the male six times, the other feedings being from 

 food carried in the gullet. The young sapsuckers matured slowly 

 and had scarcely begun to feather up to this date. No record 

 was kept after the ninth day, as we left that locality. 



The Northern Pileated Woodpecker feeds by regurgitation as 

 conspicuously as do the Flickers, and for the same reason ; 

 namely, that his food is largely ants' eggs and larvae with which 

 he fills his gullet to pour them out into the throats of the young. 



In the case of Kingfishers (Cery/e alcyofi) nesting in a low sand 

 bank at Riverside, Illinois, we found data valuable and interesting. 

 By care in concealment we were able to discover that the adult 

 came to the nest on the first day with no visible supply of food in 

 the bill but with a gullet conspicuously swollen. We had pre- 

 viously excavated the nest from the rear making a false back to it 

 so that it would be protected from the weather and at the same 

 time open easily. As soon as feeding was completed and the 

 adult out of sight, we opened the nest at the false back, took out 

 the young, then one day old, and examined the crops. They con- 

 tained a dark gray, oily mass, nearly fluid and very ill smelling, but 

 with no bones or scales in it. If fish they were very small and 

 digested. Returning the young fishers to the tunnel, we closed 

 it. Two days later the experiment was repeated with the same 

 results. Four days later, or the seventh day after hatching, we 

 examined again. This time one of the nestlings had swallowed 

 several small fish about one and one half inches long and the 

 others were still hungry. As yet we had not seen either of the 

 adults bring visible food and the most frequent feedings had been 

 forty minutes apart, I believe all by regurgitation. No record 

 was kept from the seventh to the fourteenth clay when an exam- 

 ination was made for the third time. We now found the young 

 showing well developed pin feathers, and there were traces of 

 disgorged fish bones and scales in the nest which had not been 



