98 WAKE-ROBIN 
feet from the ground. At intervals of scarcely a 
minute, the old birds, one after another, would 
alight upon the edge of the hole with a grub or 
worm in their beaks; then each in turn would make 
a bow or two, cast an eye quickly around, and by a 
single movement place itself in the neck of the 
passage. Here it would pause a moment, as if to 
determine in which expectant mouth to place the 
morsel, and then disappear within. In about half 
a minute, during which time the chattering of the 
young gradually subsided, the bird would again 
emerge, but this time bearing in its beak the ordure 
of one of the helpless family. Flying away very 
slowly with head lowered and extended, as if anx- 
ious to hold the offensive object as far from its 
plumage as possible, the bird dropped the unsavory 
morsel in the course of a few yards, and, alighting 
on a tree, wiped its bill on the bark and moss. 
This seems to be the order all day, — carrying in 
and carrying out. I watched the birds for an hour, 
while my companions were taking their turn in 
exploring the lay of the land around us, and noted 
no variation in the programme. It would be curi- 
ous to know if the young are fed and waited upon 
in regular order, and how, amid the darkness and 
the crowded state of the apartment, the matter is 
so neatly managed. But ornithologists are all silent 
upon the subject. 
This practice of the birds is not so uncommon 
as it might at first seem. It is indeed almost an 
invariable rule among all land birds. With wood- 
