X "'l-M ^ X I Ttlbb, A Successful Pair of Robins. 397 



July 4th. The young are feathering out fast. They rear up 

 ;in<l flap their wings, in danger sometimes, it seems, of falling. 

 Between the parent's visits, tin- young sink down into the nest. 

 Their heads and Decks, hanging limply over the edge, look like dead 

 snakes. 7:20 p.m. The female arrives with beak empty. The 

 young rear straighl up, swaying drunkenly — she stands motion- 

 It they sink down, then one, and later a seeond, young bird 

 raises his rear and passes a fa-eal Sac directly into the parent's 

 beak. She, as always before, swallows both sacs. The young 

 settle down at once. It is growing dark. The act of raising his 

 hinder extremity to void faeces is apparently as conscious an action 

 as rearing lor food and it is likely that hoth are associated with the 

 presence of the parent bird. 7:44. The female returns. The 

 young rear, hut, as she stands motionless, they subside. She 

 snatches up a hit of excrement (I judge from her actions; it, is too 

 dark to see) and then settles on the rim of the nest, partly covering 

 her young, probably for the night. 



July 5th. Both parents (red the young in the morning. 7: 15 

 p. m. The female parent visits the nest, perhaps feeds — the 

 young strain up toward her making a sound like "si-si-si-si" etc. 

 The old bird stares at them — one turns up, and quivers his quarter- 

 inch tail — the parent snatches the sac. 7:. 30. The parent re- 

 turns; she feeds her young little, if any; she eats three faecal 

 packages. The young birds now flap their wings when they rear. 



July 7th, 8: 30 A. M. The young birds act very differently this 

 morning. They are so large that when they move about they 

 overflow the nest. One of the brood often stands on a branch of 

 the crotch and moves back and forth between it and the nest, 

 using his wings (flapping) as well as his legs. The parents stand 

 off and "cluck" or "tut" to the young who answer with a very 

 similar note like the " quark " of a ( utbird. When the venture- 

 Some young bird stands on the branch and the sac falls toward the 

 ground, the parent dives for it. Both parents come about the nest, 

 but stand off and call before feeding. When they bring food to 

 the nest, the young give their former "sizzling" note. I notice for 

 t he first time the female parent leave the nest with a sac in her beak. 

 11:45. The young stand straight up on the nest t'd^c when the 

 parent comes near. In the interval between her visits, one squats 



