. The home life of wild birds; a new method of the study and photography of birds. Birds; Photography of birds. I04 Wild Birds. who as a class are extremely neat and clean. This is especially true of many species who breed in holes or cavities of any kind like the Woodpeckers and Chick- adees, the young of which are crowded in close quarters or even piled up in more than one layer. The Woodpecker's hole and the Bluebird's nest are always sweet and clean, and the nestlings immaculate. The duty of inspection and, if necessary, nest-cleaning follows each feeding with clock-like regularity, and is
. The home life of wild birds; a new method of the study and photography of birds. Birds; Photography of birds. I04 Wild Birds. who as a class are extremely neat and clean. This is especially true of many species who breed in holes or cavities of any kind like the Woodpeckers and Chick- adees, the young of which are crowded in close quarters or even piled up in more than one layer. The Woodpecker's hole and the Bluebird's nest are always sweet and clean, and the nestlings immaculate. The duty of inspection and, if necessary, nest-cleaning follows each feeding with clock-like regularity, and is one of the most characteristic and import- ant activities to be observed in the nesting habits oi a large number of the smaller land birds, }'et apparently it is not mentioned in the standard treatises of ornithology, and I have found but few references to it in works of any kind. Audubon, who has probably recorded more facts on the behavior of American birds than any other writer, does not, I believe, mention this important function. The reason is not far to seek, for without the possibility of close ap- proach to the nest, and the use of a convenient blind, such acts are difficult or impossible to observe. The instinct of inspecting and cleaning the nest is mainly confined to the great passerine and picarian orders represented in this country by hundreds of species. It is a well-marked trait in Thrushes, Wax- ^\'ings, Vireos, Warblers, Orioles, Blackbirds, and Woodpeckers, to mention those families in ^\•l^ich it has been observed. The of the young leave the cloaca in the form of white, opaque or transparent, mucous sacs. The sac is probably secreted at the lower end of the alimentary canal, and is sufficiently consistent to admit of being picked up without soiling bill or fingers. The parent birds often leave the nest hurriedly bearing one of these small white packages in bill, an action full of significance to every member of the family. I have seen the Oriole c
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1901
