The Audubon Societies 



295 



the sheaths of the 'pin-feathers' have begun to break. Three days later the 

 feathers have unfolded sufficiently to hide most of the bare spots, and by the 

 eleventh day the young bird is apparently fully feathered, except around the 

 eye, which area, in Blackbirds, is the last to be clothed. Of course, the feathers 

 continue to grow after the eleventh day, but the young bird has left the nest 

 and is already able to fly short distances. The change, however, has been 

 gradual, requiring several days, while in Cuckoos and Kingfishers it seems to 

 occur within a few hours. 



When the young hatch 

 they are not fed im- 

 mediately, the time 

 elapsing before the first 

 feeding varying with dif- 

 ferent species. The 

 method of feeding like- 

 wise varies. Many birds 

 are first fed by regurgi- 

 tation. The parent bird 

 swallows the food and 

 gives it to the young in 

 a partially digested 

 state. Some, like the 

 Mourning Doves and 

 Goldfinches, continue 

 this process as long as 

 they feed the young. 

 Herons and Bitterns do 

 also, at least as long as 

 the young are in the 

 nest, and one never sees 

 one of these birds re- 

 turning to its nest with 

 anything in its bill. 

 Waxwings use their 

 crops as regular market- 

 baskets and return to the nest with their necks bulging with a great variety 

 of small fruits and insects, mostly in a good state of preservation. With 

 the majority of common birds, however, this method of feeding is continued 

 but a short time, if at all, and it is a familiar sight to see the parent birds 

 returning to their young with insects or fruit in their bills. 



The commonest method of feeding is for the old bird to put its bill, con- 

 taining the food, far down into the throat of the young. This prevents any 

 live insect from escaping. In birds that regurgitate food, however, there are 



HERONS REGURGITATE THE I'OOO INTO THE MOUTHS OF 



THE YOUNG IN THE CURIOUS WAY SHOWN HERE 



BY THE LEAST BITTERN 



