DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED 347 



male and female were busy hunting 

 some sort of white larvse that they 

 obtained from an old stump. The adults 

 did not swallow these, but carried them 

 in their bills, — which convinced me that 

 the nestlings were at least five days old. 

 For my own observation proves that the 

 young of perching birds (as well as 

 Macrochires and most Pici) are fed by 

 regurgitation for four or five days, the 

 length of time varying in different spe- 

 cies and depending on the kind of food 

 brought. Birds eating large insects are 

 fed on raw food sooner than those 

 feeding upon minute insect life, such as 

 ant eggs, gnats, etc., and seed-eaters last 

 of all. 



In the case of the Nuthatches the 

 entire brood left the nest, 

 June 16, so that they must 

 have been two weeks old 

 when discovered. They 

 were fed by the parents 

 for some time after their 

 d^but, and most of the 

 time were kept well up in 

 the thick branches of a live pine 

 tree, where we could hear but 

 could not see them. 





730. Pygmy Nuthatch. 

 ' Both birds worked busily cai-ryinff feathers." 



