. The Wilson bulletin . e of the spiders werefound to be taken by the third method. Excluding spiders,the other forms which were observed to be taken only in thismanner, total 103, or about 33% of the identified food. Someof the daddy-longlegs were picked from the outside wall ofthe blind. The third method was a variation of the first. The GreatCrests sat on a low branch until they saw an insect in thegrass, when they would drop to the ground and secure it.(This does not include those picked from the grass withoutalighting.) Crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, and spiders wereobserved to be taken
. The Wilson bulletin . e of the spiders werefound to be taken by the third method. Excluding spiders,the other forms which were observed to be taken only in thismanner, total 103, or about 33% of the identified food. Someof the daddy-longlegs were picked from the outside wall ofthe blind. The third method was a variation of the first. The GreatCrests sat on a low branch until they saw an insect in thegrass, when they would drop to the ground and secure it.(This does not include those picked from the grass withoutalighting.) Crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, and spiders wereobserved to be taken in this way. When they missed the in-sect, they never hopped or ran along the ground, but rose intothe air and dove down into the grass again. One watchedcatching a grasshopper near the foot of the nest tree wentthrough this performance several times before the prey wasfinally secured. Probably most of the three forms were takenbv this method while spiders were also taken by the second. 426 The Wilson Bulletin—No. 93. The Home of the Great Crest 427 Approach to the Nest. The study of these birds was made more difficult becauseof their silent approach to the nest. Other species previouslystudied made more or less noise in coming to the nest, butthe Great Crests flew silently to some branch and then, afterlooking about, dropped to the nest opening and disappearedwithin. During the entire proceeding the only sound audi-ble in the blind was the faint scratching of their nails as theyentered the nest, and then it was too late to determine thecontents of their beaks. This explains the large percentageof unidentified food in the table. Only by keeping a closewatch on the three or four usual perches could one be sureof detecting their approach. They usually sat on these limbsfor several seconds before entering the nest and could be heldthere for some time by a slight noise from the blind. The female almost invariably came to the same branch andflew back to it on leaving the nest, bu
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1894
