218 
FRANCIS H. HERRTCK 
wings, opens its mandibles to the limit, and utters the wheezing 
grating note characteristic of infancy (figs. 14 and 15). The 
parent having landed on the nest-wall with grasshopper, hairy 
caterpillar, or large green larva, pinched usually just back of the 
head, and hanging hmp from the bruising process to which it has 
been subjected, sometimes simply places the tip of its bill in the 
mouth of the young, or lays the free end of the insect across the 
mouth-opening (fig. 13), and holds it there. The mandibles of 
the nestling close, but no swallowing effort is apparent for some 
time. Thus interlocked, parent and child will sometimes remain 
as motionless as statuettes for five minutes by the watch, and it 
is quite common for them to hold to this position for one or two 
minutes. Then the mechanism in the throat of the young bird 
begins to work, the swallowing reflex is started and the insect 
gradually slips down as if greased. 
When an old bird with food in bill is startled by some unusual 
sound or thoroughly frightened in any way, it first swallows the 
insect before giving any alarm, or taking any measures to pro- 
tect itself. The persistence, however, with which they will 
endeavor to feed their young was shown more than once when the 
great size or some other peculiarity of the insect carried made it 
unmistakable. Thus on one occasion the female brought in a 
bright green larva, not less than three inches long, and of 
about the thickness of a finger. It was offered to the young 
both in the bush and at the nest, but in vain. This great larva 
was gripped behind the head, and w^as thus carried about for the 
space of half an hour, when it was brought to the nest for the 
second time, and again the bill holding the insect's head, was 
placed in the mouth of one of the nestlings, the long body of the 
larva hanging free at one side. It was on this occasion that five 
minutes were required to awaken the swallowing reflex. 
While in such cases as that described the immobility of parent 
and child is most marked, the mother will sometimes remove the 
insect and replace it, or withdraw it a little way as if to give it a 
fresh start, or repeatedly lift it up and down ten times or more 
while awaiting the proper reaction. Under these conditions the 
mouth of the nestling is watered by a copious flow of saliva. On 
