THE BIRD STUDY BOOK 



ing possibilities of the four nestlings. The day the 

 offspring left their cradle he temporarily took pos- 

 session of them. With the aid of some friends, who 

 kindly undertook to dig fishworms for him, he pro- 

 ceeded to give the baby Robins all they cared to eat 

 between daylight and dark. He found to his very 

 great surprise that these small birds consumed in 

 one day food to the amount of their own weight and 

 56 per cent, additional. If an average-sized man were 

 to eat at this rate he would require seventy pounds 

 of beef and several gallons of water daily. Upon 

 reaching maturity the Robins probably do not eat so 

 greedily, but the incident serves to illustrate their 

 capacity in the days of youth. 



The school teachers at the Knoxville Summer 

 School who watched the Chipping Sparrow that 

 morning were members of a group of earnest men 

 and women whose lives were dedicated to the train- 

 ing of children. For nine months they had been in 

 the classroom, meeting heroically the petty trials and 

 annoyances incident to their life work. Now, in- 

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