94 



Wild Birds 



straw was in place, and in six days from the start four eggs had 

 been laid and incubation begun. Ten days later three of these 

 eggs had hatched into young birds, while one was addled. 

 Born blind, naked, and helpless, the Cedar-bird begins to see 

 when three days old, through narrow horizontal slits which 



Fig. 53. Female Cedar-bird ready to feed young by regurgita- 

 tion gullet stuffed with cherries. 



gradually open, and expose the eyes to full light. When this 

 nest was touched, the young would raise their tremulous heads 

 aloft, and with red mouths opened wide, express in silence the 

 simple sign language of newly hatched birds. One of the 

 brood mysteriously disappeared, so that eventually only two 

 were raised, and this recalls the loss of a young bird from the 

 first nest which was built by the same pair. When evil befalls 



