192 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



tion of the nest. But, wishing to make further observa- 

 tions as to her mode of feeding them, I had the little 

 fledglings brought back, and put into a cage, where they 

 were kept through the night. 



I have said there were but two, one having received 

 some injury from being trampled on by a cow. In the 

 morning this one was found dead; the other lively and 

 active. The mother was flitting about in the neighbour- 

 hood, and had evidently fed it. The cage has a project- 

 ing shelf running all around its bottom outside ; and as I 

 watched her, she lit upon this with a large grub held 

 crosswise in her beak. In a trice it was passed through 

 the wires into the open mandibles of the youngster, when 

 she flew away, and was for a time absent. Only about 

 ten minutes, till she returned again, grub in beak as be- 

 fore, and, as before, gave it to the young bird — repeating 

 ■and continuing the supply at intervals of ten or fifteen 

 minutes throughout the whole of that day. And the 

 same through several days after ; for I kept the nursling 

 some time encaged. 



I was surprised at the quantity of grubs it managed to 

 gulp down, in a single day devouring a bulk of them 

 that must have been as big, or bigger, than its own body ! 

 And they were eaten alive, as many that " missed fire," 

 from the difficulty of the mother getting them into its 

 mouth through the wires, had fallen to the bottom of the 

 cage, and were there crawling about without sign of 

 damage done them. In the act of transference from beak 

 to beak, I observed no attempt at killing or crushing 

 them; indeed, the soft bill of the pipit would hardly 

 serve for that. 



The dropped ones gave me an opportunity of seeing 

 that they w6re not all of the same sort, but of different 



