PHASES OP BIRD LIFE. 199 



They were so famished that I hurried away lest they 

 should go to preying on one another, for they would 

 sometimes greedily seize one another by the bills or 

 heads, and try to gobble one another down. Inci- 

 dents like this prove that the old birds must be on 

 the jump every moment to procure a sufficient sup- 

 ply of food for their young. Even after they have 

 left the nest, the juvenile members of the family 

 must be fed for several weeks. As long as mamma 

 and papa will get their luncheons for them, they will 

 make little effort to help themselves. I have seen 

 the dainty little accentor feeding a great, overgrown 

 mossback of a cow-bunting, which had to "juke" 

 down to her like a giant to a dwarf to receive the 

 morsel she offered him. What a drudgery it must 

 have been to collect victuals enough to fill his 

 capacious maw ! Think of a toil-worn, care-fretted 

 little mother feeding a strapping boy that will not 

 work ! 



Moreover, adult birds often are kept busy for 

 hours supplying their own craving for food. One 

 April day a hooded warbler, natty little beau, near 

 an old gravel-bank in the woods, was watched by 

 me for an hour and a half During that time he 

 must have caught an insect almost every minute, 

 and sometimes no sooner had he gulped down one 

 than he made a swift dash for another. Had he 

 not been so very, very handsome, I should have 

 dubbed him a gourmand. 



At certain seasons of the year what an active life 

 the red-headed woodpeckers are compelled to lead. 



