FEEDING OF THE YOUNG. 209 



basket, and by degrees enticed the old ones to my 

 study window : and after they became familiar with 

 that situation, the basket was placed within the 

 window ; then at the opposite side of the room. It 

 is remarkable that although the female seemed regard- 

 less of danger, from her affection to her young, the 

 male never once ventured within the room ; and yet 

 would constantly feed them while they remained at 

 the outside of the window : on the contrary, the 

 female would feed them at the table at which I sat, 

 and even when I held the nest in my hand, provided 

 I remained motionless. But on moving my head 

 one day, while she was on the edge of the nest, 

 which I held in my hand, she made a precipitate 

 retreat, mistook the open part of the window, knocked 

 herself against the glass, and laid [lay] breathless on 

 the floor for some time. It is probable the focal dis- 

 tance of such minute animals' eyes is very near, and 

 that large objects are not represented perfect on the 

 retina ; that they do riot seem to see such distinctly 

 is certain, unless in motion. However, recovering a 

 little, she made her escape, and in about an hour 

 after I was agreeably surprised by her return ; and 

 she would afterwards frequently feed the young 

 while I held the nest in my hand. The male bird 

 constantly attended the female in her flight to and 

 fro, but never ventured beyond the window-frame ; 

 nor did lie latterly ever appear with food in his bill. 

 He never uttered any note but when the female was 

 out of sight, and then only a small chirp. At first 

 there were ten young in the nest, but probably for 

 want of the male's assistance in procuring food, two 

 died. The visits of the 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 ; arid 

 this continued full sixteen hours in a day, which, if 

 equally divided between the eight young ones, each 



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