Their number appears considerable; the whole inside of the gullet is white with them.

I fix a little wooden prop between the two mandibles of the beak, to keep them open and enable me to see what happens.
I learn in this way that the hatching takes place in a couple of days.
As soon as they are born, the young vermin, a swarming mass, leave the place where they are and disappear down the throat.
The beak of the bird invaded was closed at the start, as far as the natural contact of the mandibles allowed.

There remained a narrow slit at the base, sufficient at most to admit the passage of a horse-hair.
It was through this that the laying was performed.

Lengthening her ovipositor like a telescope, the mother inserted the point of her implement, a point slightly hardened with a horny armour.

The fineness of the probe equals the fineness of the aperture.