138 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



the existence, of his offspring. Among insects there 

 is still less need of the aid of the male, so far at least 

 as food is concerned ; for very few insect parents 

 live to see their offspring. Insects, in most cases, 

 finding their own food as soon as they are hatched, 

 it is the chief care of the mother to deposite her 

 eggs where appropriate food may be readily ob- 

 tained by her progeny. Food, indeed, is in some 

 instances collected by the mother and brought to 

 the place where her eggs are deposited; but the 

 male parent never shares either in the labour of 

 procuring it or in the construction of the nest for 

 its reception ; while in the singular exceptions fur- 

 nished by ants and other insects living in commu- 

 nities, neither the males nor the females, but a pe- 

 culiar race of nurse insects, provide the necessary 

 food for the young. Among birds, on the other 

 hand, food for the young has in most instances to 

 be brought from a distance, and much assiduity is 

 required to collect it in sufficient quantity, the vo- 

 racity of nestlings being almost insatiable. Among 

 them, therefore, the assistance of the male in this 

 work is in most species almost indispensable. When 

 the brood is numerous, it would be extremely diffi- 

 cult, if not impossible, for the female alone to pro- 

 cure the requisite supply. Rooks, for example, 

 which feed their young upon the grubs of chafers 

 and similar insects, have often to make long excur- 

 sions from their nest-trees before they can find the 

 required prey ; and if this task were assigned to the 

 female alone, she could not obtain enough to sus- 

 tain her own wants and the incessant cravings of 

 five young ones, which will readily devour their 

 own weight of food in the course of a single day. 

 Accordingly, when the rooks, as they sometimes 

 do, build a second nest late in the season, in con- 

 sequence of the first being destroyed, they find it 

 scarcely possible to rear their young ; the warmth 

 of the advancing summer drying up the ground, and 



