[8] BIRDS OF OREGON 



of flesh scantily decorated with a little fuzz or down and at hatching 

 capable only of raising their heads and opening their mouths at the 

 slightest sound. They grow rapidly, however, and in a few days are 

 scrambling about the nest competing with each other for the food supply. 

 The quantity of food collected and brought to the young is astonishing. 

 To some nests that have been watched, the adults have been observed to 

 make as many as 344 feeding visits a day. Usually both parents take part 

 in this arduous duty, although there is considerable temperamental and 

 individual variation. In the majority of cases the female is the more 

 active at this task, although at individual nests males have been observed 

 carrying the heavy end of the job. 



In addition to direct feeding, which occurs with the majority of song- 

 birds, the helplessness of young birds and the type of feeding activity 

 have brought the development of a number of peculiar methods of trans- 

 ferring the food from the parents to the young. In the pelican family, 

 for example, fishes are swallowed by the adult bird, which returns to the 

 nest heavily laden. On arriving, the huge bill is opened and the one or 

 two homely, fuzzy youngsters insert their heads far down the throat of 

 the parent to obtain the partly digested food. Adult herons partly digest 

 frogs, crustaceans, and small fishes before arrival at the nest. There the 

 youngsters seize the parent's bill crosswise, exactly as if they were at- 

 tempting to cut it off with a pair of scissors. When the two birds are 

 locked together, the parent goes through a series of contortions and 

 pumping motions that eventually result in bringing up a mass of partly 

 digested food that is transferred to the mouth of the young bird as its bill 

 slides along that of the adult towards the tip. The hummers expertly 

 feed their young by thrusting their long beaks far down the throats of 

 the babies. The nestlings are so tiny and the bill is so sharp and long 

 that an observer seeing a performance for the first time half fearfully 

 expects to see the baby bird completely impaled. Many sparrows carry 

 seeds in their throats and gullets, bringing the softened material up into 

 their mouths to feed the young birds on their return to the nest. Hawks 

 and owls tear up their prey for the younger birds, feeding them small bits 

 of flesh at a time, although these ferocious and stoutly built youngsters 

 soon learn to do their own carving. 



There are many interesting things going on about the nest of any bird; 

 the individual reactions of the parents, their battles with real or potential 

 enemies, the feeding of the young, and the sanitation of the nest make 

 up a kaleidoscopic picture that is intensely fascinating to an observer. 

 In the past few years a great deal has been accomplished by erecting 

 blinds close to nests and watching at short range the varied activities. 

 Occasionally a pair of birds refuses to become reconciled to the presence 

 of such a blind, but in the majority of cases they quickly become accus- 

 tomed to it and in some instances show an astonishing indifference. An 



