68 WILD LIFE AND THE CAMERA 



beak, and with a peculiar note she conveyed to the 

 little ones the news that there was food near by. 



It is quite in accordance with the rules and 

 regulations of bird life that when food is brought 

 to the nest, each member of the hungry (and to be 

 a young bird is to be hungry) family shall open his 

 or her beak to its greatest extent. When there are 

 six such mouths open, and each head, held on high, 

 trembles violently in pleasurable anticipation of the 

 hoped-for morsel, we cannot help wondering how 

 by any possibility the parent bird can decide which 

 shall have the food. She appears, however, to waste 

 no time in considering the difficult problem, but 

 instantly drops the insect, or whatever it may be, 

 into one of the many mouths. Then, after remaining 

 for a few seconds to see that the nursery is as clean 

 as it should be, she hurries away in quest of a further 

 supply of food. 



Now the five young birds before me understood 

 full well the significance of their mother's call, and 

 one after another they opened their mouths, but in 

 a half-hearted way that was most ridiculous. 

 Evidently they realised the fact that things were 

 not quite as they should have been, and that 

 perhaps, after all, they were not going to be fed. At 

 any rate it was better to be fully prepared, and so 

 it was that, as each one sat with a silly expression on 

 his face and his beak partly open, I made the 

 picture of which the accompanying is a reproduc- 

 tion. After taking another photograph, showing 

 the entire brood on the stump that contained their 

 cozy home, I left them in possession of the orchard, 

 and sought for myself a place where the breezes 



