108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



To meet tlie objection that the earth-worm contains but a 

 small quantity of nutritious matter, on the twenty-seventh day 

 he was fed exclusively on clear beef, in quantity twenty-seven 

 pennyweights. At night the bird weighed fifty-two penny- 

 weights, but little more than twice the amount of flesh con- 

 sumed during the day, not taking into account the water and 

 earth swallowed. This presents a wonderful contrast with the 

 amount of food required by the cold-blooded vertel)rates, fishes 

 and reptiles, many of which can live for months without food, 

 and also with that required by maminalia. Man, at this rate, 

 would eat about seventy pounds of flesh a day, and drink five or 

 six gallons of water. 



The question immediately presents itself, how can this immense 

 amovmt of food required by the young birds be supplied by the 

 parents ? Suppose a pair of old robins, with the usual luimber 

 of four young ones. These would require, according to the 

 consumption of this bird, two hundred and fifty worms, or their 

 equivalent in insect or other food, daily. Suppose the parents 

 to work ten hours, or six hundred minutes, to procure this 

 supply ; this would be a worm to every two and two-fifths 

 minutes ; or each parent must procure a worm or its equivalent 

 in less than five minutes during ten hours, in addition to the 

 food required for its own support. 



After the thirty-second day the bird had attained its full size, 

 and was intrusted to the care of another person during his 

 absence of eighteen days. At the end of that period the bird 

 was strong and healthy, with no increase of weight, though its 

 feathers had grown longer and smoother. Its food had been 

 weiglied daily, and averaged fifteen pennyweights of weight, two 

 or three earth-worms, and a small quantity of bread each day, 

 the whole being equal to eighteen pennyweights of meat, or 

 thirty-six pennyweights of earth-worms ; and it continued up to 

 the time of the presentation of the report. The bird having 

 continued in confinement with certainly much less exercise than 

 in the wild state, to eat one-third of its weight in clear flesh 

 daily, he concludes that the food it consumed when young was 

 not much more than must always be provided by the parents of 

 wild birds. The food was never passed undigested ; the excre- 

 tions were made up of gravel and dirt, and a small quantity of 

 semi-solid urine 



