. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. Fig. 21. - A young Woodcock, ready to leave the nest. The Amount of Food required by Young Birds. It seems necessary to the health and comfort of the nest- ling bird that its stomach be filled with food during most of the day. Nearly half a century ago Prof. D. Treadwell called attention to the great food requirements of the young Robin. Two young birds from the
. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. Fig. 21. - A young Woodcock, ready to leave the nest. The Amount of Food required by Young Birds. It seems necessary to the health and comfort of the nest- ling bird that its stomach be filled with food during most of the day. Nearly half a century ago Prof. D. Treadwell called attention to the great food requirements of the young Robin. Two young birds from the nest were selected for his experiment. One soon died of starvation, as the supply of food given them at first was much too small. The food of the re- maining bird was gradually increased from day to day, until on the seventh day it was given thirty-one angleworms; but there was no increase in its weight until, on the fourteenth day, it received sixty- eight worms, weighing, all told, thirty-four pennyweights.^ Later the same bird ate nearly one-half its own weight of beef in a day. A young man eating at this rate Avould consume about seventy pounds of beefsteak daily. The Robin even when full gi'own required one^third of its weight of beef J •! Fig. 22. —Young Robins, in the nest. Mr. Charles W- Nash fed a young Robin from fifty to seventy cutworms and earthworms a day for fifteen days. While experimenting to see how many cutworms the bird would eat in a day, he fed it five and one-half ounces of this food, or one hundred and sixty-five cutworms. As the Robin weighed but three ounces in the morning, it must. ' The Pood of Young Robins, by D. Treadwell. Society of Natural Histoiy, Vol. VI, pp. 396-399. Proceedings of the Boston. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Forbush, Edward Howe, 1858-1
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherb, booksubjectbirds
