The Home of the Great Crest 429 



to us, was the large percentage of larvse fed. They comprised 

 the largest single item of food, being 21.15% of the total. 

 Grasshoppers under two heads in the tables, were 12.50% ; 

 spiders, 6.73% ; moths, 6.97% ; unidentified, 26.20% ; red 

 admirals, 3.12%; flies, 3.60%; beetles, 4.08%; hymenoptera 

 (bees and wasps), 4.32%; and the remiander, 11.30%, were 

 miscellaneous insects. 



Although we did not keep continuous watch at the nest, 

 we spent some time each day from the time of hatching until 

 the departure of the young, except on the tenth. From the 

 second to the fourth we were still too far away to determine 

 the nature of the food, but we could see it projecting from 

 the beak on almost every visit. We saw no evidence of 

 regurgitation either here or at a phoebe's nest, which we 

 watched for 3 few hours. 



During- the study we saw the parents carry away the ex- 

 creta 41 times and devour it only once. Much of it was un- 

 doubtedly removed during our absence from the blind, but 

 there must have been much of it devoured while the birds 

 were concealed from our view in the nest. 



The nestlings were very noisy and restless. They kept up a 

 constant peeping from the first day. On July 7 one or more of 

 them beg-an to utter a loud clear call or whistle, "twee-eet," 

 which was occasionally answered by the parents from a dis- 

 tance. From this time we could hear the parents whistling 

 while far away from the nest, but for the most part they re- 

 mained as silent as ever. 



On July 8 the nestlings began to climb restlessly about in 

 the nest. We had cut the edge down a little in order to ob- 

 tain a better view and there was a large natural crack to the 

 bottom of the nest. They crawled part way up the sides of 

 the cavity and fell back to the bottom again. On the morning 

 of July 9 we found only three nestlings in the nest. A search 

 revealed one dead at the foot of the tree ; but the fifth was 

 never found, although we hunted for yards around in the 

 short grass. Several times on July 9 they fell out of the nest 



