9 6 



Wild Birds 



silence in drawing near; the young are fed, inspected, and 

 cleaned; the old bird flies to a convenient perch, rubs the bill 

 clean, plumes, and speeds off to the nearest cherry trees. 



In the course of the morning these fledglings became very 

 restless, and as the heat from the sun increased, one crawled 



Fig. 55. Regurgitating food. Up goes the head, and presto ! 

 out comes a berry. 



out, sat in the shadow of the leaves, and finally dropped to the 

 grass. Here it was immediately fed, and then hopped away 

 surprisingly fast. The male enticed it along, and thereafter 

 took care of it, while the mother returned to her remaining 

 nestling. Twenty minutes later the last fledgling had left the 

 nest, never to return, and the curtain was immediately rung 

 down. The young had spent exactly two weeks in their tern- 



