Chris Maack posits the following theory about Marbled Murrelet chicks

>The chick may be pulling on the wrong end of the
>fish. They have to learn to swallow them head-first
>from earliest chickhood, and the only way for the
>parent to prevent backwards feedings is to maintain
>its grip until the chick grabs the head end.

Good idea. But there is videotape showing a chick grabbing a fish the wrong
way, dropping it, picking it back up and doing a sort of aerial juggle
until the fish is headed the right way, then swallowing it. So while the
parent's tenacity in hanging on to it *may* help in that way, it's probably
not strictly necessary.

-- Janet Hardin
Port Townsend, WA
wings at olympus.net