GREAT BLUE HERON AND WATER TURKEY 121 



Great Blue Heron Feeding Young 

 "Its bill was seized by one of the young" 



The young now were frantic with excitement and, in 

 chorus, uttered their cuk-cuk, cuk-cuk feeding call. As the 

 parent stepped slowly into the nest, its bill was seized by 

 one of the young. The young bird did not thrust its bill 

 down the parental throat nor was the parent's bill intro- 

 duced into that of the young. The hold of the young bird 

 was such as one would take with a pair of shears, if one 

 were to attempt to cut off the adult 's bill at the base. In 

 this manner the old bird's head was drawn down into the 

 nest where more or less digested fish was disgorged, of 

 which all the young at once partook. On one occasion, the 

 adult disgorged a fish at least a foot in length and on dis- 

 covering that it was too large for the young, the parent 

 re-swallowed the fish and returned to a perch near the nest, 

 while awaiting for the processes of digestion to continue the 

 preparation of the meal. 



