. The home life of wild birds; a new method of the study and photography of birds. Birds; Photography of birds. Care of Young and Nest. lo: times ; once a part (if the excreta was taken away and a part eaten ; five times it was re- moved from the nest, and on eleven visits all was devoured. After watching such behavior, whicli I have seen repeated with slight variations hun- dreds of times, I am convinced that the excreta in such cases is actually eaten, and not merely taken into the gullet to be later regurgitated. It is true that the Cedar-bird uses its distensible gullet as a temporary rece
. The home life of wild birds; a new method of the study and photography of birds. Birds; Photography of birds. Care of Young and Nest. lo: times ; once a part (if the excreta was taken away and a part eaten ; five times it was re- moved from the nest, and on eleven visits all was devoured. After watching such behavior, whicli I have seen repeated with slight variations hun- dreds of times, I am convinced that the excreta in such cases is actually eaten, and not merely taken into the gullet to be later regurgitated. It is true that the Cedar-bird uses its distensible gullet as a temporary receptacle for the food destined for the young, and it might seem prrjbable that the excreta went no farther than the oesophagus, from which it was later ejected The actions of the birds just described and in many similar cases observed do not support this idea. __ Not only are the young care- fully tended in the way explained, but the old birds often put the head down in the nest and rummage about for any stray particle of food or fragments of any kind which it is desirable to remove. While stand- ing at the nest the}' will sometimes pick energetically their own legs and toes, and the heads and bodies of the young, a very important function where the nest is infested with those minute swarming particles known as lice and mites. Every straw and fiber in the Cedar-bird's nest shown in one of the photographs (Fig. 38) was literally co\'ered with parasites, in this case a species of mite which is a poor and degenerate relation of the spider. When the nest or anything in it was touched they would swarm up the hand by hundreds, but they are barely visible to the e}'e, and apart from a slight tickling sensation between the fingers are scarcely felt. They do not seem to trouble the old birds much, but must give discomfort to the voung, especialh" if from any other cause they happen to be weakly. One would suppose that cleanliness must be an imperative instinct with such a bird as the
Size: 1533px × 1630px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1901
