102 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



instead of bringing the food to them, as most 

 old birds do when the young cannot find food 

 near their homes. It was long a puzzle how 

 the woodcock does this, for its feet are not 

 at all suited for carrying anything, nor is its 

 bill ; but by watching it has been found out 

 that the little bird is carried between the old 

 one's legs as it flies, so that there is not much 

 strain on the feet. Only one can be taken 

 at a time, so it is lucky for the old woodcocks 

 that they have only four young ones in the 

 brood. 



With birds that keep their helpless young 

 ones in nests and feed them all the time, you 

 can see that there are two different ways of 

 doing this, even among our tame birds. When 

 pigeons feed their young ones the little bird 

 puts its beak inside the old one's, but when 

 canaries do this, the little birds gape widely, 

 showing the red inside of their mouths, and 

 the old birds put their beaks in the little ones' 

 mouths. This is the usual plan with birds 

 which have helpless young ones to feed, as 

 you will find if you watch the young of most 

 of our common wild birds being fed. But 

 some birds besides the pigeon family take 



