354 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



female were generally repeated in the space of 

 a minute and a half or two minutes, or, upon 

 an average, thirty-six times in an hour ; and 

 this continued full sixteen hours in each day. 

 If the supplies thus brought were equally divided 

 between the eight young ones, each would receive 

 seventy-two meals a-day, the whole amounting to 

 five hundred and seventy-six. From examination 

 of the food, which now and then dropped acci- 

 dentally into the nest, it was judged from the 

 quantity weighed, that each meal was a quarter of 

 a grain upon the average; so that each nestling 

 received about eighteen grains of food in a day. 

 The nestlings weighed about seventy-seven grains 

 each at the time they began to perch ; they must 

 consequently have consumed nearly their weight 

 of food in four days at that time. The young 

 appeared to be made aware of the approach of the 

 old bird by some low note, and at such times their 

 animation was great, and every mouth was in an 

 instant opened to receive the insect food. It ap- 

 peared, however, that the strongest too frequently 

 fared the best, these being able to jostle aside the 

 others, and to reach the farthest. The parent bird 

 did not seem to follow any regular plan in feeding 



