64 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



bird always accompanied liis mate, wliile slie 

 flew backwards and forwards, but never ventured 

 beyond the window frame, and after a time never 

 brought food in his bilL "At first," says this 

 writer, " there were ten young in the nest, but 

 probably for Avant of the male's assistance in pro- 

 curing 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 an liour, and this continued full 

 sixteen hours in a day, and if equally divided 

 between the eight young ones, each would receive 

 seventy-two feeds in the day, the whole amounting 

 to five hundred and seventy-six. From exami- 

 nation of the food, which by accident now and then 

 dropped into the nest, I judged from those weighed, 

 that each feed was a quarter of a grain, upon an 

 average ; so that each young one was supplied 

 with eigliteen grains' weight in a day, and as the 

 young ones weighed about seventy-seven grains 

 at the time they began to perch, they consumed 

 nearly their weight of food in four days' time 

 at that period. This extraordinary consumption 

 seems absolutely requisite in animals of such rapid 

 growth. The old birds of this species weigh from 



