YOUNG BIRDS AND BIRDS' EGGS 



227 



as hawks and falcons (Fig. i), vultures, anhingas, some 

 waders and water birds, owls, and others. Curiously 

 enough, in the vultures as for example in our turkey 

 buzzard the pure white young, in due time, moult to 

 the wholly black plumage of the adult bird. 



Young birds of other species possess no plumage at 

 all in the nestling stage not even a trace of down. This 

 is well seen in the young of the hornbill of certain islands 

 of the East Indies. Wallace well describes them in his 

 "Malay Archipelago," and he says that when he "re- 

 turned to Palembang by water, and while staying a day 

 at a village while a boat was being made water-tight, I 

 had the good fortune to obtain a male, female, and young 

 bird of one of the large hornbills. I had sent my hunters 

 to shoot, and while I was at breakfast they returned, 

 bringing me a fine large male, of the Buceros bicornis, 



A YOUNG OWL 



Figure 3. Taken all together, we have over a dozen species and sub- 

 species of screech owls in this country, the one here shown being a 

 nestling of the kind occurring in the Atlantic States. Of all fluffy 

 young birds, the young owl is the fluffiest. 



which one of them assured me he had shot while feeding 

 the female, which was shut up in a hole in a tree. I had 

 often read of this curious habit, and immediately returned 

 to the place, accompanied by several of the natives. After 

 crossing a stream and a bog, we found a large tree 

 leaning over some water, and on its lower side, at a 

 height of about twenty feet, appeared a small hole and 



what looked like a quantity of mud, which I was assured 

 had been used in stopping up the large hole. After a 

 while we heard the harsh cry of a bird inside, and could' 

 see the white extremity of its beak put out. I offered 

 a rupee to any one who would go up and get out the 

 bird, with the egg or young one, but they all declared 



A CAT BIRD'S HOME 



Figure 4. The cat bird is one of the sweetest songsters we have, yet 

 few species have been more bitterly persecuted and mercilessly de- 

 stroyed. It generally builds its nest as here shown in a bramble or 

 in some thicket. The unspotted eggs are of a fine greenish blue, and 

 usually four in number. 



it was too difficult, and they were afraid to try. I there- 

 fore very reluctantly came away. In about an hour 

 afterward, much to my surprise a tremendous loud hoarse 

 screaming was heard, and the bird was brought me, 

 together with a young one, which had been found in the 

 hole. This was a most curious object, as large as a 

 pigeon, but without a particle of plumage on any part 

 of it. It was exceedingly plump and soft, and with a semi- 

 transparent skin ; so that it looked more like a bag of jelly, 

 with head and feet stuck on, than like a real bird. 



"The extraordinary habit of the male in plastering up 

 the female with her egg, and feeding her during the 

 whole time of incubation and till the young one is fledged, 

 is common to several of the large hornbills, and is one 

 of the strange facts in natural history which are 'stranger 

 than fiction'." 



In the work cited, Wallace gives an excellent cut of 

 the female hornbill he describes, with the curious young 

 one at her side; the latter is a most helpless appearing 



