. Nestlings of forest and marsh, by Irene Grosvenor Wheelock; . strength. It wasa funny sight to see those young thrashersraise themselves to their fullest height, andthen stretch limb by limb and wing by were hearty, hungry youngsters, beg-ging for food early and often. Both parentswere kept busy bringing worms, beetles,grasshoppers, moths, and spiders. Every-thing went with them. I could not see thatthey evinced partiality for any especialmenu. So long as it was brought everytwenty minutes, and plenty of it, they weresatisfied. I frequently saw the father ham-mer away at some kind
. Nestlings of forest and marsh, by Irene Grosvenor Wheelock; . strength. It wasa funny sight to see those young thrashersraise themselves to their fullest height, andthen stretch limb by limb and wing by were hearty, hungry youngsters, beg-ging for food early and often. Both parentswere kept busy bringing worms, beetles,grasshoppers, moths, and spiders. Every-thing went with them. I could not see thatthey evinced partiality for any especialmenu. So long as it was brought everytwenty minutes, and plenty of it, they weresatisfied. I frequently saw the father ham-mer away at some kind of food on the limbof a tree. He would rise up to his fullestheight, and strike down with his beak,pickaxe fashion, on the offending morsel,but I never discovered whether this wasa hardshell beetle, or a nut, or what itwas. 231 NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH He never failed to greet us with the samepolite protest, and not once did I go thereand find him off guard. Possibly hisformer sad experience had warned him ofdanger, for this family were reared in Baby thrashers, ten days old When they were six days old, we pho-tographed them, and again on the eighthday. Their wing and tail feathers were asoft red brown where they were out of thequills, and brown feathers covered headand back. The underparts were sparselyfeathered in white, striped at the sides ofthe throat and spotted on the breast withbrown, like the adult thrashers. Largeyellow bills and very long yellowish legsgave them an overgrown appearance, likea schoolboy who has outstripped his A BROWN THRASHER Although these same legs seemed to betoo weak for perching, nevertheless whenwe put them back into the nest the youngbirds with one accord refused to stay thereand scampered in every direction. Aftermany catchings and attempts to make themcuddle down in bed like well-behaved babies,we at last succeeded. But the next day theywere off early and could nowhere be father was still there, and from h
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1902
