360 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 92 



forms with which I am acquainted, the food is thrust intO' the 

 nesthng throat by the parent. With the grosbeaks this did 

 not seem to be possible and the following method was used 

 much of the time. In order to convey to the reader the pic- 

 ture of this process it will be necessary to explain that in the 

 Grosbeak's bill the cutting edges of the mandibles (especially 

 the upper one) are slightly turned inward toward the median 

 line so that when the mandibles are brought together a shallow 

 longitudinal depression is formed. The beak of the parent 

 was brought into- the nestling mouth in such a manner that 

 the tip of its (the nestling's) mandibles are in this depres- 

 sion. .When this was accomplished the parent began a slight 

 movement of the mandibles as if chewing. The effect of this 

 was to allow the morsel tO' slip down into the nestling mouth. 

 As the nestlings becaine older this action was hastened by 

 their action of closing the mandibles over the ends of the 

 food projecting on each side of the beak. At times the mor- 

 sel was carried into the mouth of the young bird in such a 

 position as to lodge there. When this occurred the parent 

 seized it, placed it crosswise of his or her beak and the entire 

 process was repeated. Out of the 459 observed feedings 274 

 were of this nature. That is the food was projecting from 

 the beak as they approached the nest, which was certain in- 

 dication that regurgitation was not being practiced on these 

 visits. The above process was almost invariably carried out 

 even if it required considerable maneuvering on the part of 

 the parents. 



With these 274 feedings disposed of there remain 185 

 feedings, during which regurgitation might have been prac- 

 ticed. At first sight some of these feedings seemed to be of 

 a regurgitative nature, but continued observation convinced us 

 that nothing of the kind occurred during our study of this 

 pair. During the first seven feeding's nothing was visible in 

 the parent's beak and this might have been taken as regurgi- 

 tative feeding but for a chance observation. The nest was 

 located in a small elm in the midst of a willow thicket and, 

 on these willows the fruiting aments were not quite ripe. 



