FEEDING OF THE YOUNG. 167 



placed within the window, then at the opposite side 

 of the room. It is remarkable that although the 

 female seemed regardless of danger, from her af- 

 fection to her young, the male never once ventured 

 within the room, and yet would constantly feed 

 them while they remained at the outside of the 

 window ; on the contrary, the female would feed 

 them at the table at which I sat, and even when I 

 held the nest in my hand, provided I remained mo- 

 tionless. But on moving my head one day, while 

 she was on the edge of the nest, which I held in 

 my hand, she made a precipitate retreat, mistook 

 the open part of the window, knocked herself 

 against the glass, and laid [lay] breathless on the 

 floor for some time. It is probable the focal dis- 

 tance of such minute animals' eyes is very near, and 

 that large objects are not represented perfect on the 

 retina ; that they do not seem to see such distinctly 

 is certain, unless in motion. However, recovering 

 a little, she made her escape, and in about an hour 

 after I was agreeably surprised by her return ; and 

 she would afterward frequently feed the young 

 while I held the nest in my hand. The male bird 

 constantly attended the female in her flight to and 

 fro, but never ventured beyond the window-frame, 

 nor did he latterly ever appear with food in his bill. 

 He never uttered any note but when the female was 

 out of sight, and then only a small chirp. At first 

 there were ten young in the nest ; but probably, for 

 want of the male's assistance in procuring food, 

 two died. The visits of the female were generally 

 repeated in the space of a minute and a half or two 

 minutes, or, upon an average, thirty-six times in an 

 hour ; and this continued full sixteen hours in a 

 day, which, if equally divided between the eight 

 young ones, each would receive seventy-two feeds 

 in the day ; the whole amounting to five hundred 

 and seventy-six. From examination of the food, 

 which by accident now and then dropped into the 



