204 



GOLD CRESTED WREN. 



yet would constantly feed them while they remained at the outside of 

 the window : on the contrary, the female would feed them at the table 

 at which I sat, and even when I held the nest in my hand, provided I 

 remained motionless. But on moving- my head one day, while she was 

 on the edge of the nest, which I held in my hand, she made a precipi- 

 tate retreat, mistook the open part of the window, knocked herself 

 against the glass, and laid breathless on the floor for some time. 1 How- 

 ever, recovering- a little, she made her escape, and in about an hour 

 after I was agreeably surprised by her return, and she would afterwards 

 frequently feed the young while I held the nest in my hand. The 

 male bird constantly attended the female in her flight to and fro, but 

 never ventured beyond the window-frame ; nor did he latterly ever 

 appear with food in his bill. He never uttered any note but when the 

 female was out of sight, and then only a small chirp. At first there 

 were ten young in the nest, but, probably for want of the male's assist- 

 ance in providing food, two died. The visits of the female were gene- 

 rally repeated in the space of a minute and a half or two minutes, or, 

 upon an average, thirty-six times in an hour ; and this continued full six- 

 teen hours in a day, which, if equally divided between the eight young- 

 ones, each would receive seventy-two feeds in the day ; the whole amount- 

 ing to 576. From examination of the food, which by accident now and 

 then dropped into the nest, I judged from those weighed, that each feed 

 was a quarter of a grain upon an average ; so that each young one was 

 supplied with eighteen grains weight in a day; and as the young 

 birds weighed about seventy-seven grains at the time they began to 

 perch, they consumed nearly their weight of food in four days at 

 that time. 2 I could always perceive by the animation of the young 

 brood when the old one was coming ; probably some low note indi- 

 cated her near approach, and in an instant every mouth was open 

 to receive the insect morsel. But there appeared no regularity in the 

 supply given by the parent bird : sometimes the same was fed two or 

 three times successively ; and I generally observed that the strongest 

 got most, being able to reach farthest, the old one delivering it to the 

 mouth nearest to her, and after each feed she waited awhile to see 

 if any muted. The lesser species of birds, who are so frequently fed, 

 seldom or ever mute but immediately after they are fed, by which 



1 It is probable the focal distance of such minute animals' eyes is very near, and that 

 large objects are not represented perfect on the retina ; that they do not seem to see 

 such distinctly is certain, unless in motion. 



2 This extraordinary consumption seems absolutely requisite in animals of such rapid 

 growth. The old birds of this species weigh from eighty to ninety grains. 



