TO FEED THEIR YOUNG. 203 



and affection. I have observed a pair of starlings 

 for several days in constant 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 thir- 

 teen 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 

 perseverance in fishing for their broods ; but the 

 very precarious 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 anni- 

 hilated in some cases. The gallinaceous birds have 

 nests on the ground; the young leave them as 

 soon as they escape from the shell, are led imme- 



