The History and Purposes of Bird Banding

1921 J LINCOLN, History of Bird Banding.217 would not work for his food so long as his parents would go and bring it to him.The first young one was only twenty-one days old when it left the home roof for good, although it could hardly have fed itself for some time afterwards.Judging from the fact that one young bird was brown, I believe it was a female, while the one that was mostly gray I believe was certainly a male on account of his screech.The call notes were very interesting, although the female made no sound beyond an occasional faint hiss.The quacking of the male is undoubtedly a warning call.I could not decide upon any meaning for his soft, bow-string note, but it was very musical and quite unlike anything that would be expected from a Nighthawk.The repetition of the courtship flight and song of the male to the female, when both old and young were flying together high in air, was surprising and interesting.His singing had stopped almost altogether after the eggs were laid, and during courtship I never saw the song flight when the female was in the air.The young at first have a faint chicken-like "peep," but discontinue it at a very early age and are very quiet.I believe the food given the young must consist of soft insects, for the most part, as a careful examination of a large number of droppings revealed no signs of hard wing-cases or beetles.Neither were there any bits of clam shell, so it is possible that clam shell may be given to make the young disgorge the pieces of beetle found with it in the pellet.The Woodstock, Tacoma, Wash.