Wild Birds. 



not likely that the oesophagus serves any. other purpose than a temporary receptacle for 

 the food. 



When the berries had gone the rounds, both birds would suddenly leave the nest 

 with a.whisk. Again one would hear their murmuring call, tr-e-e-e-e-k ! growing more dis- 

 tinct as they came nearer. Then both would alight on the nest rim, and stand there a 

 moment like statuettes with heads erect. After regurgitating the food and distributing 

 it, they keenly eye everything in the nest, snap up the excreta from each bird in turn, 



swallow it, and are off. 

 The young sat or stood on 

 the nest with heads up and 

 all pointed oneway. Pres- 

 ently, every black bead- 

 like eye was alert ; four 

 scarlet-orange mouths 

 opened at the same mo- 

 ment, and four necks were 

 stretched now to this side, 

 now to that, whence came 

 the least sound. When 

 their parents actually ap- 

 proached with their low- 

 whispered call, they would 

 huddle together and 

 stretch their legs, wings, 

 and whole bodies to the 

 utmost. Then would arise 

 such a chorus of supplicat- 

 ing cries as no parent could 

 resist. Touch but a twig 

 and the nest presents an 

 even livelier spectacle. 

 The young fairly tumble 

 over each other, while 

 their wings, heads, and 

 bodies vibrate with an 

 intensity of desire which 

 their eager voices can only 

 feebly express. Two days 

 ago these young lay quietly 



in their nest, and when touched showed absolutely no fear, but to-day the instinct of fear 

 had possessed them, and when approached, all hopped off the nest and hid in the grass. 

 Another Waxwing family was discovered on August I5th, in the crotch of a witch- 

 hazel bush seven feet up, in the same pasture with the Red-eyed Vireos whose history is 

 yet to be told, and not many rods from their nest. A touch to the branch brought off 

 the mother, who was brooding three tender young barely two days out of the shell- 



Fig. 38. Female Cedar-bird prepared to regurgitate food from the gullet. 

 Notice the outlines of the neck, which mark the full throat. "Twenty min- 

 utes later, the last fledgling had left the nest." August 25, 1899. 



