ds are able to
run or swim with their parents almost as soon as hatched, for they not
only have the strength to do this, but their bodies being covered with
down they are protected from the sun or cold. Examples of such birds
are the Quail, Grouse, Sandpipers, Plovers, and Ducks. The young of
these and allied species are {44} able from the beginning to pick up
their food, and they quickly learn from the example of their parents
what is desirable. Soon they are able to shift for themselves,
although one or both of the parents continue to attend them until grown.

With the altricial birds the young are hatched in an absolutely
helpless condition, being both blind and naked, and it is necessary
that they be fed by the parents, not only while occupying the nest, but
also for several weeks afterward. To this group belong most of the
small birds we are accustomed to see about the house. When newly born
the food they receive is first digested in the crop or the stomach of
the parent from which it is regurgitated into the mouth of the young.
Flickers, Hummingbirds, Doves, and some others continue to feed their
young in this manner, but usually the method soon gives way to that,
more commonly observed, of simply supplying soft-bodied insects which
have been captured and killed but not eaten.

In the case of Pelicans, Cormorants, and Ibises, {45} the young thrust
their bills far down the throats of the parents to procure the
regurgitated food. From this custom the ancients may have got the idea
that Pelicans feed their young with their own life blood. The
suggestion still persists, and on the seal of one of our large life
insurance companies of America a Pelican and her young are represented
accompanied with the motto: "I live and die for those I love." The
great seal of the State of Louisiana uses a similar picture without the
motto.

Hawks and Owls tear their prey to pieces and on this the young feed at
infrequent intervals. Sometimes several hours pass between the visits
of the food-laden parents, but the supply is usually adequate when at
length it arrives.

_Sharing the Labours._--Most young birds, however, are fed with great
frequency. For more than an hour one day the writer watched a pair of
Georgia Mockingbirds feeding their young. The one that appeared to be
the female visited the nest with food on an average once every two
minutes, and the male {46} made a similar trip about once in twelve
minutes. He