130 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 84. 



I hurriedly withdrew but heard the parent birds still calling 

 to the young when I reached the street beyond the hayfield. 

 Upon my return an hour later, the nest was empty. 



The mother bird seems to both incubate and brood; when 

 brooding, she frequently changes her position on the nest to 

 accommodate herself to the wriggling young, she cleanses the 

 nest and young of parasites, shields the young from the sun 

 and rain. The male and female feed the young both fresh 

 insects and by regurgitation. The male calls the female from 

 the nest for the rest period. She flies to meet him with a 

 Fhieu! or a Whit-yer! of delight. The instinct of fear '.s 

 more in abeyance in the female than in the male. Sometimes 

 the latter after some change has been made about the nest, 

 refuses to feed the young for long periods, but he calls lustily 

 to his mate, if she suspends her attentions to the young for 

 any unusual length of time. 



The male alights on a conspicuous perch near the nest, off 

 and on, where he flutters all over while he regards the mate 

 on the nest or the young in it. After the young are hatched, 

 the male seems to bring the food to the young instead of his 

 mate. Whether he fed the female during the incubation 

 period I was unable to learn as the eggs were so surprisingly 

 prompt in hatching. 



Both birds either eat or carry away the excrement. In the 

 second nest, the bird carried away the ordure for the first time 

 on the ninth day. At this age the young ate so much that the 

 parents ceased to feed everyone at each visit. One or more 

 was omitted at each feeding, and one excrement was usually 

 carried from the nest. In the nest that I photographed, the 

 parent birds still ate some excrement on the twelfth day. 



Every time that I see the birds performing this rather 

 abnormal act, it suggest a question. Why? It would seem 

 as if there must be some very good reason for the instinct 



^ I saw sometliiiii; similar to this once in the case of a Part- 

 ridge. I flushed a hrond of verv young: Partridges; most of them 

 scattered and concealed themselves, hut one fledgling stood still 

 in the open. The old bird called, then flew at the nestling and 

 dealt it a fierce blow that caused it to seek shelter at once. 



