132 A WIDOW AND TWINS. 



was somewhat laughable. The mother 

 perched beside one of the young birds, put 

 her bill into his, and then apparently fell 

 off the limb head first. We thought she 

 had not finished, and looked to see her re- 

 turn ; but she flew away, and after a while 

 the truth dawned upon us. Thereafter, un- 

 less our observation was at fault, she used 

 whichever method happened to suit her con- 

 venience. If she found a choice collection 

 of spiders, 1 for instance, she brought them 

 in her throat (as cedar-birds carry cherries), 

 to save trips; if she had only one or two, 

 she retained them between her mandibles. 

 It will be understood, 1 suppose, that we 

 did not see the food in its passage from one 

 bird to the other, human eyesight would 

 hardly be equal to work of such nicety ; but 

 the two bills were put together so frequently 

 and in so pronounced a manner as to leave 

 us in no practical uncertainty about what 

 was going on. Neither had I any doubt 

 that the change was connected in some way 



1 Mr. E. H. Eames reports (in The Auk, vol. vii. p. 

 287) that, on dissecting a humming-bird, about two days 

 old, he found sixteen young spiders in its throat, and a 

 pultaceous mass of the same in its stomach. 



