. 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" bird seemed dazed for a moment, and stood gazing at the departing f\y as if in mute astonishment. Exciting scenes usually follow at the nest of the Kingbird when a large dragon- i\y, cicada, or grampus is brought to the family circle. The insect often struggles hard, but escape is out of the question, especially with both birds at the nest, who at once begin to rend and crush it with their bills. The male grampus {Corydalits corn- iitus) better known
. 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" bird seemed dazed for a moment, and stood gazing at the departing f\y as if in mute astonishment. Exciting scenes usually follow at the nest of the Kingbird when a large dragon- i\y, cicada, or grampus is brought to the family circle. The insect often struggles hard, but escape is out of the question, especially with both birds at the nest, who at once begin to rend and crush it with their bills. The male grampus {Corydalits corn- iitus) better known as the larval hellgamite of which black bass are sometimes ex- tremely fond, has long gray wings folded back over the body when at rest, and the head is armed with horns an inch long but formidable only in their appearance. I have seen these huge insects measuring four inches from tip of the jaws to the extrem- ities of the folded wings fed to a single bird, and they were swallowed — wings and all. The operation is shown at an incom- plete stage in one of the illustrations, where the wings of the grampus can be seen projecting an inch or more from the mouth of the struggling bird. The cicada is even tougher and harder to manage but is beaten into subjection, and served up in a limp condition. Last August, 1 witnessed a sti'cet combat be- tween one of these cicadae and an House Sparrow. The insect was bounding up and down on the ground and sounding its crescendo at an alarming rate, but unable to a\'oid the blows which rained from the Sparrow's bill. As the music of the dying cicada finally ceased, the .Sparrow picked up his victim and bore it off to his brood ir. CLEANING THE NEST. The sanitary condition of the younj. Fig. 98. A common scene at this nest. The male brings food, while his mate, who is brooding, receives it into her own bill and passes it on to the Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanc
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1901
