TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS 357 



and finally he fed a piece of the worm to each one. The 

 same lesson was repeated with the next worm, and the 

 next, and so on for nearly an hour ; but never a youngster 

 offered to do anything but sit up and beg. That teacher 

 will remain a model of patience as long as I live. It 

 was the most amusing and most instructive bit of bird 

 life I ever observed, and I saw in a flash just why it 

 is that a young bird may starve with food piled high 

 around it. 



How long this period of helplessness lasts for different 

 birds I have never found stated in the books. I have 

 found it to be from two to five days with young robins. 

 During this time every morsel must be placed in the young 

 bird's month, and it should be fed at least once an hour 

 from sunrise to sunset. 



What is a nestling's menu for a day ? No one has 

 answered this question. 1 There are about sixteen meals to 

 be accounted for. Are they varied course dinners, with 

 insects and fruit for dessert ? Are they rather monotonous 

 affairs ? Does a parent bird bring worms to its young 

 for one meal, grasshoppers for the next, and berries for 

 the third or do they get the same thing all day long ? 

 Do they make no intelligent choice, but feed whatever 

 they find first ? These questions may seem farfetched, 

 but to one who has been trying his hand at feeding young 

 birds they become intensely practical. None of them have 

 been answered, so far as I know ; but the fact seems to 



1 I was once watching five young cedar birds just out of the nest, when 

 the mother bird flew down to them. They were all in a row on a twig, 

 and I saw her drop a red currant into each of the open mouths in turn. 

 I should like to have known what their next meal was. 



