102 



however, for sometimes the entire mass is given to one bird. 

 There seems to be no order in this distribution, the young bird 

 with the longest neck and widest mouth always getting fed 

 first. The food is delivered well down into the throat of the 

 young (Plate XV, fig. 1), and if not immediately swallowed 

 is removed and given to another. The number of visits or 

 periods of feeding varies with different individuals, and in 

 general increases with the age of the young. Two different 

 nests were observed with young of about the same age (four 

 days) . One female made visits about once a minute, but took 

 long rests every ten minutes or so ; the other was more regular, 

 but her visits averaged only once in five minutes. After 

 almost every feeding, the nests were scrupulously cleaned, 

 and the excrement, enclosed in its membrane, was carried some 

 distance from the nest before it was dropped. Some indi- 

 viduals drop the excreta always in the same spot. 



Fall Migration. 

 With the gathering together of the Redwings in the fall and 

 their visitations in vast flocks upon the grain fields, they are 

 so conspicuous and are of such economic importance that they 

 have received a great deal of attention, both by ornithologists 

 and by the public at large. Wilson (1831) writes that toward 

 the middle of August the young birds begin to fly in flocks 

 chiefly by themselves. He tells of their feeding on green corn 

 in September and of the method employed to destroy them on 

 their roosts by setting fire to the marsh. He states that about 

 the first of November they begin to move off toward the south, 

 though near the seacoast, in New Jersey and Delaware, they 

 continue long after that period. Nuttall's account is very 

 similar to that of Wilson, but goes a Uttle more into detail: 

 *'In the latter part of July and August the young birds, now 

 resembling the female, begin to fly in flocks and release them- 

 selves partly from dependence on their parents, whose cares 

 up to this time are faithful and unremitting; a few males only 

 seem inclined to stay and direct their motions. About the 

 beginning of September these flocks, by their formidable 

 numbers, do great damage to the unripe corn, which is now a 



