HOUSE FINCHES TWELVE DAYS OLD 



the fourth day the feathers begin to show on the wings, and by the sixth 

 these are well advanced and the tail-feathers are beginning to sprout. The 

 eighth day shows still more advance, the web begins to appear at the tips 

 of the sheaths of the wing-quills and the body- feathers show a little. In 

 ten days the birds are quite well feathered, the primaries are well developed 

 and the other wing-feathers are advancing rapidly. The birds begin to 

 show more activity, and, while they have not much use of their limbs, they 

 can wriggle about in a lively, not to say aggravating, manner when one is 

 trying to photograph them. 



When they were twelve days old it was found best to take the pictures 

 as side views, instead of placing the camera so as to look directly down upon 

 the birds. They were now pretty well covered with feathers but could 

 hardly sit up straight. 



As the days went on they began to get the use of their limbs, and could 

 sit on a perch if one had the patience to pick them up and replace them a 

 dozen or two times. The last picture was taken on the sixteenth day, when 

 only a little of the natal down was left, and that on the head. They left 

 the nest on the seventeenth day after hatching, but, as I had gone away 

 myself the evening before, I got no more pictures. 



HOUSE FINCHES SIXTEEN DAYS OLD. THEY LEFT THE NEST THE FOLLOWING DAY 



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