226 A HISTORY OF BIRDS 



and mischievous birds make some atonement for the injury they 

 do the farmer and the gardener, to say nothing of the bird- 

 lover, during the rest of the year. But in a very little while a 

 vegetable diet of regurgitated seeds take the place of insect 

 food ; and in this particular the Sparrow follows the traditions 

 of his tribe — the Finches. 



The offspring of the Cormorants are fed after a fashion 

 which savours a little of nastiness, inasmuch as the young bird 

 thrusts its head down the parent's throat and helps himself to 

 as much as he can swallow of his parent's last meal ! Similarly, 

 the young Pelican helps himself to fish from his mother's pouch. 

 To assist him she presses the pouch against her breast and 

 raises the upper jaw. According to the legend indeed she 

 feeds her young on her own blood ! This curious and touching 

 conceit probably arose from the fact that a certain amount of 

 blood from the captured fish escapes at this time. This fashion 

 of feeding practised by the Cormorant and its near relative the 

 Pelican is the more curious because no other members of the 

 group to which these birds belong, except perhaps the Gannet, 

 appear to adopt the practice. And this brings us to the sub- 

 ject of feeding by regurgitation, which is practised by numbers 

 of birds of quite different orders, so that it must suffice here 

 to quote a few instances thereof 



The Petrels appear always — though exceptions will probably 

 be found — to feed their young on oil, which is distilled from the 

 fish on which they live, in large quantities, and this is injected 

 into the mouths of their offspring. This oil is also used, by the 

 way, as a weapon of offence both by old and young, being 

 squirted out from the mouth and nostrils whenever they are 

 alarmed. 



Unappetising as such a diet may seem, it would nevertheless 

 appear to be wonderfully sustaining, and no more striking proof 

 of this could be found than that furnished by the Albatross. 

 In the species known to science as Diomedea exulans, at any 

 rate, if in no other species, the nestling is at first assiduously 

 fed until it becomes a mass of fat, even exceeding the adult 

 in weight ! It is then deserted by its parents, who roam the 

 winter over the ocean, leaving their down-clad and helpless 

 offspring to the tender mercies of Fate for the space of about 

 four months ! At last they return to the nest to find the young 



