HOME BIRDS 65 



which is much like that of their parents, until they 

 are a week or more old. They are noisy little chaps 

 and if you tap the tree trunk or limb in which they 

 are living, they utter in chorus a loud buzzing pro- 

 test. They climb to the nest-hole to receive their 

 food, which the parents give them by a process known 

 as regurgitation. In this act the parent thrusts its 

 bill far down the throat of the young and brings up 

 from the crop, or regurgitates, partly digested food. 

 On this fare the young grow so rapidly that they 

 leave the nest when they are about four weeks old. 

 Then for some time they remain under their parents' 

 care, learning the ways of their kind. 



