of her parent. At one instant the young is quietly sitting, apparently half asleep, 

 on some small branch, at the next the old bird has dashed up, seemingly ma- 

 terialized out of thin air. and has jabbed her sharp, inch and a half long bill- 

 down the young one's throat until we are sure that it must be protruding from 

 its back. But far from being frightened or startled by the operation the 

 youngster seems to be enjoying it and hangs on desperately to the mother's bill 

 while she goes through the most terrible contortions in her eflFort to pump into 

 him the last drop of food which her crop contains. Then in an instant it is over 

 and away she flashes, so rapidly that the eye cannot follow her, leaving the young 

 one to drouse on his perch in anticipation of another onslaught. 



The flicker gives another exarriple of this method and is the only one of 

 the w^oodpeckers that does feed its young in this manner. The old bird collects 

 ants and other small insects sufficient to make a good square meal, and these 

 by the time she has reached the nest are in a state of partial digestion. As soon 

 as she arrives the young scramble for the entrance of the nest and the first one 

 there of course receives first attention. She thrusts her bill down the yawning 

 throat and with the same motion which she employs in drumming upon a tree 

 she pumps part of the contents of her stomach into his. So violent is this 

 motion that it is with the utmost difficulty that the young one is enabled to 

 retain his hold, but no sooner has he dropped off satisfied than another is ready 

 to take his place, and so it goes on until each one is fed or the supply exhausted. 



Perhaps the most remarkable provision of all is made by pigeons for their 

 young during the first few days of their career. Immediately after incubation 

 is complete there arises from the crops of both parent birds a secretion that 

 is known as ''pigeon milk," and upon this alone for the first day or two of their 

 lives the squabs are fed. Gradually regurgitated food is mixed with it until, 

 when their digestive powers become strong enough to care for solid food, it 

 ceases entirely. So far as is known these are the only birds that secrete such a 

 fluid as this. 



The pelicans, those huge water birds of the south and west, of which there 

 are two species, the brown and the white, are fish eaters and get food for them- 

 selves and their young by plunging into the sea and catching fish in the large 

 pouch which hangs from the lower mandible of their bill. The young obtain 

 their food from the parent bird in a manner exactly opposite from that which I 

 have been describing. The old bird, having caught and partially digested a fish, 

 returns to its nest where each youngster in turn is invited to thrust its head way 

 down the parent's throat and gobble its full. This, however, only for the first 

 few days of its life, after which the food is brought in the pouch and the young 

 allowed to help themselves as best they may. It is no unusual sight to see a 

 half-grown peHcan sitting in a nest with a fish in its mouth so large that it is 

 unable to swallow it, and with the tail protruding from its bill while the head 

 is being digested. 



The birds of prey, the hawks, eagles, owls, etc., feed their young on the 



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