Thanks for the follow-up on chick-feeding, Janet.

I have a theory about this behavior you mentioned:

>The chicks sometimes go through several minutes
of begging, even tugging at one end of the fish, while
the newly arrived parent sits there as if catatonic, fish
clutched firmly in its beak.>

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.

Chris Maack
Anchorage, AK
CMaack at compuserve.com