100 



The Young. 



Concerning the development and care of the young, but 

 little has been written. Herrick (1901) gives the most com- 

 plete account. He writes as follows: ''On the fifth day of 

 July a nest of three young Blackbirds, . . . aged five days, was 

 found. . . . On . . . July 11th, . . at about half-past eleven 

 o'clock one of the fledglings left the nest and was fed by the 

 old birds in the surrounding bushes of the marsh. . . . Three 

 days later the swamp was visited at just after sundown, when 

 the young birds suddenly arose from the nest and flew off 

 with ease and precision." Evidently the first bird was in 

 the nest eleven days, and the others fourteen, provided they 

 were five days old when first found. A summary of the 

 observations made on the development of the young at Ithaca, 

 for various nests in 1910, is as follows: 



At hatching the young are blind and helpless. The skin 

 is scarlet, with but a scant covering of buffy or grayish down 

 along the principal feather tracts (Plate XII, fig. 1). They 

 are at first exceedingly helpless, scarcely able to raise their 

 heads for food, but they gain strength rapidly after the first 

 feeding. During the first day there is considerable increase in 

 size. On the second day feather sheaths of the primaries and 

 secondaries show distinctly. By the third day these feather 

 sheaths appear distinctly along all of the tracts. On the 

 fourth and fifth days there is a great increase in the size of the 

 body and in the length of the quills (Plate XII, fig. 2). On 

 the sixth the feather sheaths of the wing break open. On the 

 seventh the wing feathers have grown considerably, and those 

 of the other tracts begin to break. On the eighth all of the 

 sheaths have broken, and the wing feathers have attained 

 considerable length. On the ninth the feathers have grown 

 still further, but do not yet cover all of the bare spaces (Plate 

 XIII, fig. 1). The young can fly short distances, however, 

 and can not be kept in the nest if once frightened or removed. 

 If the nest has become polluted, as frequently occurs when it 

 has become greatly compressed by the growing vegetation, 

 they may leave of their own accord on this day. On the 

 tenth the stronger of the young leave and cHmb to near-by 



