9 2 Wild Birds 



After getting the tent up it was not many minutes before a 

 low-murmured tr-e-e-e-e-k ! or ze-e-e-e-t ! was heard, to which 

 the young always responded in a similar strain. Approaching 

 cautiously, with throat loaded to the brim with choke-cherries, 

 the mother bird delivered them one by one, and then inspected 

 and cleaned her household. 



After a longer interval the pair came and stood on the edge 

 of the nest. There was nothing in their bills, but their gullets 

 were crammed full of blueberries, and after tantalizing the 

 supplicating young for a moment, up went a head, and presto! 

 out came a berry, which was quickly placed in an open throat, 

 and passed around until it was promptly swallowed. Up went 

 the head again, and the performance was repeated. It was like 

 a magician shaking eggs from a bag, and there seemed to be 

 no limit to its capacity. Many who have witnessed such 

 actions have supposed that the old birds were attempting to 

 distribute the food without partiality to their hungry children, 

 but this is not the case. It is all a question of nervous reaction. 

 The food is not simply placed in the mouth, but pressed well 

 down into the sensitive throat, which promptly responds unless 

 the gullet is already full. The old bird watches the result in- 

 tently, and if the food is not taken at once it is passed from one 

 to another until a throat with the proper reaction time is found. 

 The movements of the bird are so rapid, and the berry is so 

 often quickly withdrawn, that it is difficult to make an ac- 

 curate count. Usually from six to eleven blueberries and al- 

 most as many choke-cherries are thus carried in the gullet. 

 Wilson, who noticed the distensibility of the gullet of this bird, 

 which will take from twelve to fifteen cedar berries at a time, 

 thought that it served as a crop to prepare the food for digestion. 

 The berries and insects, it is true, often come up crushed to a 

 pulp and reeking with slime, but it is not likely that the oesopha- 

 gus serves any other purpose than a temporary receptacle for 

 the food. 



When the berries had gone the rounds, both birds would 

 suddenly leave the nest with a whisk. Again one would hear 

 their murmuring call, tr-e-e-e-e-k ! growing more distinct as they 



