. Bird lore . e neck in the same position. It isremarkable how the pose of this member affects a Herons appearance. Doubtless, the young birds were not a little puzzled by the unusual reluctanceof their parents to administer to their wants. In vain they uttered their frog- The Home-Life of the American Egret 67 like kek-kek-kek, and stretched their necks hopefully. The old birds were notassured. So the young resorted to their customary occupations of leg- or wing-stretching, or yawning, or preening a brothers or sisters feathers, picking atimaginary objects here and there, all good exercises f
. Bird lore . e neck in the same position. It isremarkable how the pose of this member affects a Herons appearance. Doubtless, the young birds were not a little puzzled by the unusual reluctanceof their parents to administer to their wants. In vain they uttered their frog- The Home-Life of the American Egret 67 like kek-kek-kek, and stretched their necks hopefully. The old birds were notassured. So the young resorted to their customary occupations of leg- or wing-stretching, or yawning, or preening a brothers or sisters feathers, picking atimaginary objects here and there, all good exercises for growing birds. Thelarger ones made little journeys to the limbs near the nests, the neck taking adifferent curve with every movement, and expressing every emotion from extremedejection to alert and eager expectancy. Finally, as the old birds were convincedthat the blind was harmless, their reward came. With harsh, rattling notesand raised crest one of the parents alit near the nest. Its superbly threatening. EGRETS DISPLAYING THEIR PLUMESFrom the Habitat group in the American Museum of Natural History attitude was clearly not alarming to the young birds, who welcomed it by voiceand upstretched, extended neck. Gravely the parent stood regarding its young,while its crest dropped and its pose relaxed. Then, as it stepped to the edge ofthe nest, it lowered its head, when its bill was immediately seized by one of theyoungsters. The young bird did not thrust its bill down the parental throat,nor was the parents bill introduced into that of its offspring. The hold of theyoung bird was such as one would take with a pair of shears, if one were to attemptto cut off the adults bill at the base. In this manner the old birds head wasdrawn down into the nest, where the more or less digested fish was disgorged,and at once devoured by the young. Three days passed before pictures were secured of this singular operation, 68 Bird-Lore which, so far as I am aware, has not been before described
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
