PROGNK. 335 



was urging the other to feed it. Then each would seek to relieve 

 its feelings in flight, only to return later to repeat the whole 

 performance. After eight or ten days of repeated journeys to 

 and from the gathering grounds, the bulky nests were about 

 finished and the females made ready for their household duties. 

 The several homes beneath the house soon held full quota of little 

 white eggs. Two held three and another five. During the period 

 of incubation, which lasted from fifteen to sixteen days, the male 

 showed much solicitude for his mate. He sat for hours by her 

 side near the nest and chirped and twittered in low, sweet tones 

 as if stri^^ng to enliven the monotony of his somewhat irksome 

 position. Several times each day, though only for a few minutes, 

 she took journeys in search of food. 



"At hatching time a busy season commenced for both birds. 

 The business for carrying food for the youngsters went on all day 

 long, from early morning till late at night. The little flesh- 

 coloured babies with tight shut eyes and gaping mouths needed 

 much looking after, for their demands for food never abated. 

 After every third or fourth trip, one of the parents cleaned the 

 nest with its bill, carrying away the excrement incased in its thin 

 shiny sack, to drop it a safe distance from the home so that the 

 prowling marauder might find no tell-tale evidence. 



" When a week old, the nestlings presented a curious appear- 

 ance with their half-open eyes, vast stomachs, and shining 

 transparent skin thickly striated with the black sheaths of young 

 feathers, for there is no down until about the tenth day, when 

 the feather-sheaths break. Their food consisted entirely of 

 insects — flying ants, termites, ant-lions and dragon-flies. Some- 

 times a dragon-fly was brought of too large dimensions to be 

 easily swallowed whole. Then the wings were severed, one by 

 one from the body, which was well-crushed by the bill of the 

 parent. The youngster would seize it fiercely and swallow it 

 with incredible rapidity, undergoing terrible contortions, gasping 

 and choking for several minutes after it had oone down. 



" The young birds were lined up on the edge of the beam twenty- 

 two days after hatching, ready to begin their trials of flight. 

 They returned to their nests for a few nights and then, having 

 partly learned to care for themselves, departed elsewhere to roost. 

 Every morning, together with others that iuid been reared in less 



