TO FEED THEIR YOUNG. 
141 
and aquatic tribes, have no cessation of labor from 
early morning till the close of eve, till the brood can 
provide for themselves. What unceasing toil and per- 
severance are manifest in the rooks, and what distances 
do they travel to obtain nourishment for their clamorous 
brood ! It is a very amusing occupation for a short time, 
to attend to the actions of a pair of swallows, or mar- 
tens, the family of which have left the nest, and settled 
upon some naked spray, or low bush in the field, the 
parents cruising around, and then returning with their 
captures to their young: the constant supply which 
they bring, the celerity with which it is given and re- 
ceived, and the activity and evolutions of the elder 
birds, present a pleasing example of industry and affec- 
tion. I have observed a pair of starlings for several days 
in constant progress before me, having young ones in 
the hole of a neighboring poplar tree, and they have 
been probably this way in action from the opening of 
the morning — thus persisting in this labor of love for 
twelve or thirteen hours in the day ! The space they 
pass over in their various transits and returns must be 
very great, and the calculation vague ; yet, from some 
rude observations it appears probable that this pair in 
conjunction do not travel less than fifty miles in the 
day, visiting and feeding their young about a hundred 
and forty times, which consisting of five in number, 
and admitting only one to be fed each time, every bird 
must receive in this period eight-and-twenty portions 
of food or water ! This excessive labor seems entailed 
upon most of the land birds, except the gallinaceous 
tribes, and some of the marine birds, which toil with 
infinite perseverance in fishing for their broods; but 
the very precarious supply of food to be obtained in 
dry seasons by the terrestrial birds renders theirs a 
labor of more unremitting hardship than that expe- 
rienced by the piscivorous tribes, the food of which is 
probably little influenced by season, while our poor 
land birds find theirs to be nearly annihilated in some 
cases. The gallinaceous birds have nests on the ground ; 
the young leave them as soon as they escape from the 
shell, are led immediately from the hatch to fitting 
