on the Regent Bird.



93



Regents were driven into the birdroom, the comforts of which

Baby soon learned to appreciate. But the youngster could be

very wilful, and would sometimes dart back over my head to the

farthest corner of the aviary with a wild and cheeky Ske — or-r-r-r-r r

which presumably meant “ Catch me if you can.”


When about to feed the young, unless they were very

hungry, the mother did not fly to them direct. She would

approach by some roundabout way, and then would hop in their

vicinity, above below and around them, in a very comical manner,

and I soon learned what this hop meant. The young, who did

not cuddle together and were often separated, rarely betrayed

their whereabouts by the slightest sound ; in absolute silence

they would open their mouths and swallow the food.


The “ Feeding from the Crop” question was ever present

to my mind. I have read somewhere, I think in the Auk , that

all birds feed their young from the crop for the first few days.

Unquestionably some insectivorous birds do, at any rate under

certain circumstances, but there is a difference between “all”

and “some.” On three'occasions after the young Regents had

left the nest the mother may have been feeding from the crop,

but I was not witness to a single instance in which I can say that

she was so feeding. From the first, whilst the young were in the

nest, the food, even sop, could be seen in the mother’s bill.


However, I was much impressed by another circumstance.

Whenever % I attempted to administer physic or food to either of

the young, with mandibles slightly parted, accompanied by a

sucking action, they persisted in pushing the head forward to the

full stretch of the neck with a perfectly instinctive and mechanical

movement, as if it were their custom to thrust their bills well

into the mother’s mouth and beyond for the purpose of imbibing

soft food. Whenever I did see the mother feed, the youngster

held its head down with open mouth pointing well upwards,

while the mother, drawing herself up to her full height, w r ould

reach over and above it, and most gently and carefully deposit

the food well down the throat. She often carried enough at a

time for three or four of such feeds. For myself, I found they

could comfortably swallow only what was moist; even a small

cockroach had to be dipped in some fluid.



