52 USEFUL BIRDS. 
gitation. The parent birds swallow the food, and probably 
soften or partly digest it, ejecting it afterwards through their 
own mouths into the open mouths of the young. No attempt 
was made, therefore, in this case, to determine the character 
or amount of the food, for fear of disturbing the parents and 
interrupting the regularity of the feeding. The birds were 
fed between 7 and 8 a.m. four- 
teen times; between 8 and 9, 
nine times; between 9 and 10, 
twelve times; between 10 and 
11, seven times; between 11 
and 12,‘sixteen times; between 
12 and 1, nine times; between 1 
and 2, twelve times; between 
2 and 3, fifteen times; between 
3 and 4, thirteen times; and be- 
tween 4 and 5, eighteen times. 
It will be seen that one or 
the other parent came to the 
nest with food one hundred and 
Fig. 24.— Passenger Pigeon feeding twenty-five times in ten hours, 
by regurgitation. From Samuels. even when the observer was 
watching near by; but this leaves four hours unaccounted 
for, to fill out the long June day, from dawn to evening. 
The feeding periods averaged less than six minutes apart dur- 
ing the time the birds were watched ; so it seems probable 
that, had the entire record for the day been kept, at least 
one hundred and fifty visits to the young would have been 
recorded. Young birds are fed oftenest at morning and even- 
ing, or during the hours when these Vireos were not watched. 
Mr. Mosher watched a pair of Rose-breasted Grusbeaks’ 
feeding their young on June 12, 1899. The young were 
nearly ready to leave the nest, as one of them stood on a 
branch near its edge. The nest was situated about fifteen 
feet from the ground, in the top of a slender white birch in 
the woods. The ground was well covered with hazel bushes 
about three and one-half feet high, which nearly concealed 
the observer. During the first half hour he made no record, 
as the birds were alarmed by his presence. As they com- 
