MIGRATIONS AND NESTING HABITS. 283 



a rare thing for the domestic cock to pay any attention 

 to his offspring. It really seems to be a matter of con- 

 descension on his part when he brings some choice morsel 

 of food or an insect to the attention of the overburdened 

 hen mother with fifteen or twenty little chicks. 



As to the feeding and care of the young, about the 

 same individual differences hold good; though for the 

 majority of birds both parents share in the feeding of the 

 young birds, at least to some extent. In the higher 

 orders both parents seem to have equal solicitude for 

 the safety and comfort of their young. And it is certainly 

 no easy task to fill the gaping mouths from daylight to 

 dark. Sometimes it is a fine, fat, juicy worm, or a piece 

 of a berry; sometimes it is a half dozen seeds beaten to a 

 pulp ; or some other dainty, regurgitated morsel from 

 the parent crop ; or perhaps it is a little fish dropped down 

 the willing throat. With praecocial birds the training 

 usually consists in showing the young birds where and 

 how to find food for themselves. You have doubtless 

 seen a mother duck teaching her ducklings to spoon up 

 the mud from the bottom of the pond for insect larvae 

 and juicy water plants; or the domestic hen showing her 

 chicks how to make the dirt fly in the weed patch, or in 

 the mellow garden good angleworm ground! 



June and July are the high tide of the nesting season 

 with our temperate latitude birds, and on some especially 

 hot afternoon one may be surprised to find some mother 

 robin, catbird, or cedar bird astride her nest, with wings 

 half extended, thus attempting to shield her nestlings 

 from the sun, and at the same time give them air. 



As to their notions of cleanliness, birds adhere more 

 or less closely to standards, which also seem to vary with 

 the nervous development and the advancement of the 



