532 



LAND BIRDS 



nest with food averaged ten minutes apart. The longest 

 period of fasting was twenty-three minutes, and the short- 

 est one and one-half minutes. Usually one can tell what 

 food a nestling has swallowed by looking closely at its 

 distended crop, as the contents are visible through the 



nearly transparent skin. But 

 these young Tanagers ^^'ere 

 twenty feet from the ground in 

 a slender fir, and I could not 

 examine tliem ; consequently I 

 could judge of the menu 

 only by the foraging of the 

 adult, and by what I saw 

 sticking out of his bill. 

 When he darted out into 

 the air and back again in fly- 

 catcher fashion, I knew he was 

 after a small insect. When he 

 came from the bushes with a 

 bunch on either side of his beak, 

 I was sure he had picked up a 

 caterpillar ; when wings of gauzy 

 texture projected on one side of 

 the mandibles and a long black 

 body on the other, I made a Yankee guess that a dragon- 

 fly had been captured for breakfast. 



As soon as the nestlings were able to fly they came 

 down to the cover of the lower brush and fed in com- 

 pany with their parents. We knew this by the anxiety 

 of the adults and by their efforts to lead us away from 



607. LonsiANA Taxager. 



" A dragonfly had been cap- 

 tured for breal-fast.^' 



