44 



USEFUL BIRDS. 



The Amount of Food required by Young Birds. 

 It seems necessary to the health and comfort of the nest- 

 ling bird that its stomach be filled with food during most 



of the day. 



AU'fii'i 



Fig. 21. • 



- A young Woodcock, ready to 

 leave the nest. 



Nearly half a century ago Prof. D. Treadwell 

 called attention to the great 

 food requirements of the 

 young Eobin. Two young 

 birds from the nest were 

 selected for his experiment. 

 One soon died of starvation, 

 as the supply of food given 

 them at first was much too 

 small. The food of the re- 

 maining bird was gradually 

 increased from day to day, 

 until on the seventh day it 

 was given tliirty-one angleworms ; but there was no increase 

 in its weight until, on the fourteenth day, it received sixty- 

 eight worms, weighing, all told, thirty-four pennyweights. ^ 



Later the same bird ate 

 nearly one-half its own 

 weight of beef in a day. 

 A young man eating at 

 this rate would consume 

 about seventy pounds of 

 beefsteak daily. The 

 Eobin even when full 

 grown required one-third 

 of its weight of beef 

 daily. ^'^•22- 



Mr. Charles W. Nash fed a young Eobin from fifty to 

 seventy cutworms and earthworms a day for fifteen days. 

 While experimenting to see how many cutworms the bird 

 would eat in a day, he fed it five and one-half ounces of this 

 food, or one hundred and sixty-five cutworms. As the 

 Eobin weighed but three ounces in the morning, it must 



- Young Eoblns, in the nest. 



■ The Food of Young Robins, by D. Treadwell. 

 Society of Natural History, Vol. VI, pp. 396-399. 



Proceedings of tlie Boston 



