176 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 85 



cabbage worms, and tomato worms or some closely related 

 species. This list includes many of the most troublesome 

 and injurious insect pests in this vicinity during the summer 

 and any species of bird which aids in their destruction must 

 be beneficial to some extent. The parent birds were not 

 noted eating the cherries or blackberries themselves altho a 

 few were fed to the young. 



NEST C. 



The study of nest C which was under observation for 143 

 hours and 10 minutes, yielded 517 feeding records. On 51 

 of these visits two nestlings were fed making 568 feedings 

 during which 596 morsels were fed. There was certainly no 

 regurgitative feeding in this instance as two of the nestlings 

 were under observation from the time they hatched. At 

 11 :55 A. M.^ July, 31, the female approached with a measur- 

 ing worm an inch long and tried several times to give it to 

 Blue, When after numerous attempts he could not swallow 

 it, she devoured it herself. The first food Blue was observed 

 to get was a smaller measuring worm, and the next, a small 

 beetle. Brown hatched at 3 :07 p. m. and in just an hour re- 

 ceived a measuring worm, followed by a fly. White was 

 given a mayfly as his first food. Many times during the first 

 few days of feeding the female brought grasshoppers and 

 worms too large for the young to swallow. The method of 

 procedure in such a case was always the same. Each nest- 

 ling was tried several times and if the morsel was not then 

 taken it was swallowed by the parent. The female did all 

 the work in caring for the brood while the nest was under 

 observation. This included all the daylight hours from the 

 hatching of the first egg until the feeding activities were 

 over, with the exception of about four hours. The male was 

 noted several times each day, singing and foraging in the 

 near by shrubs. Twice he approached the nest with food 

 but did not feed the young. 



From the beginning of the study Blue, who was at least 

 five hours older than Brown and twenty-two hours older 



