172 THE YOUTH OF BIRDS. 



distinction— that tlie land-birds are batched with rudimentary and percep- 

 tible wings and tails, whilst the water-birds are covered with down until 

 they are well nigh full-grown, when the plumage comes suddenly as it were, 

 and their appearance totally alters; and here we perceive the hand of 

 wisdom adapting the means to the end; for what peril would await the 

 denizens of the woods and plains, were they helplessly clad in down only, 

 and unable to raise themselves from the earth, as is the case with their 

 aquatic brethren ? Whereas the liquid element, which is the home of these 

 latter, itself furnishes their safety, and unless it is that pike and rats get 

 hold of a few, I know of no enemy that they have, and we know that 

 the instances in which they fall a prey to these are few; securely hid and 

 screened from harm by the green water-plants, and the solitude of the 

 silent pool, at ease and in security their youth is past, and I remember 

 well, when a boy, the delight with which I have sat on the margin of 

 such a scene at early summer morn, an unperceived spectator of the sight, 

 and watched the Duck lead forth her little train from the sedgy margin 

 into the open water, looking like dark beads upon the surface, and with 

 what facility, at the slightest alarm, they concealed themselves, so as in a 

 moment to be perfectly invisible. But far prettier and more interesting 

 than these are the offspring of the minute water-fowl — the Moorhens, the 

 Dobchlcks, and the Teal, like so many little black puff-balls^ and nothing else. 



As I have before hinted, our summer visitants stand on a different 

 footing; it appears in some sort necessary that their youth should be quickly 

 got over: for whatever facilities the Straits of Gibraltar and the narrow 

 channel between England and France (supposing they crossed at the nar- 

 rowest possible point) might afford them, such a journey is no joke to a 

 being scarcely three months old, as is the case with many, and hence they 

 speedily arrive at a very decent degree of resemblance to their parents ere 

 they depart for other realms; and with the Swifts this is a real wonder. 

 Gilbert White took notice of this, and I may be perhaps pardoned for 

 inserting a short extract from his book upon this point: — ■ 



"On the r>th. of July, 1775," he says, "I again untiled part of the roof 

 over the nest of a Svvift; the dam sat in the nest, but so strongly was she 

 affected by natural 'storge' for her brood, which she supposed to be in 

 danger, that, regardless of her own safety, she would not stir, but lay 

 sullenly by them, permitting herself to be taken in hand. The squab young 

 were brought down and placed on the grass-plot, where they tumbled about 

 and were as helpless as a new-born child. While we contemplated their 

 naked bodies, their unwieldly disproportioned ahdumina, and their heads too 

 heavy for their necks to support, we could not but wonder when we re- 

 flected that these shiftless beings, in little more than a fortnight, would 

 be able to dash through the air ahnost with the inconceivable swiftness of 



