204 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



of one hour cannot be accurately predicated of twelve 

 successive hours, inasmuch as the sparrows could 

 not be certain of meeting- with the requisite supply 

 of caterpillars in their immediate vicinity, and if they 

 did one day, they would probably have afterwards 

 to forage at some distance. 



A more recent observer has with due caution con- 

 sidered such calculations too vague, though they are 

 literally copied not only by all the compilers, but by 

 Bonnet and Smellie. " I have observed," says Mr. 

 Knapp, " a pair of starlings for several days in con- 

 stant progress before me, having young ones in the 

 hole of a neighbouring poplar tree, and they have 

 been probably this way in action from the opening of 

 the morning thus persisting in this labour of love 

 for twelve or thirteen hours in the day ! The space 

 they pass over in their various transits and returns 

 must be very great, and the calculation vague ; yet 

 from some rude observations, it appears probable 

 that this pair in conjunction do not travel less than 

 fifty miles in the day, visiting and feeding their young 

 about a hundred and forty times, which consisting 

 of five in number, and admitting only one to be fed 

 each time, every bird must receive in this period 

 eight and twenty portions of food or water ! This 

 excessive labour seems entailed upon most of the 

 land birds, except the gallinaceous tribes, and some 

 of the marine birds, which toil with infinite perse- 

 verance in fishing for their broods ; but the very p^e- 

 carious supply of food to be obtained in dry seasons 

 by the terrestrial birds, renders theirs a labour of 

 more unremitting hardship, than that experienced by 

 the piscivorous tribes, the food of which is probably 

 little influenced by season, while our poor land birds 

 find theirs to be nearly annihilated in some cases *." 

 There cannot be any question of the immense nun> 

 * Journ. of a Naturalist, p. 198, 3d edit. 



