232 A HISTORY OF BIRDS 



rock-ledge on which they were hatched until the wings have 

 grown sufficiently large to act as a parachute, though not large 

 enough for flight. They are enticed to spring into space 

 by the parents, who tempt them with food. But occasionally 

 it would seem, when obstinacy is displayed, the exasperated 

 parent seizes her progeny by the back of the neck and flies 

 down to the water with it, to acquire the art of swimming 

 and diving (p. 230). Dr. Giinther tells me, however, that he 

 once had the good fortune to watch a young Guillemot taking 

 his first trip to the sea. Here the young was thrust off the 

 rock by its parents, who broke its fall by continuously darting 

 underneath it, and partly supporting it till the water was 

 reached. 



After these instances of the care and affection which birds 

 almost universally display towards their offspring, it is somewhat 

 surprising to find that cases of what appear to be the most 

 brutal callousness on the part of the parents are not infrequently 

 to be met with. Thus, it commonly happens, in the case of 

 the Golden Eagle, for e.xample, that the last bird to be hatched 

 is smaller than the rest, and very commonly appears to be so 

 much weaker that its more vigorous bed-fellows are fledged 

 and ready to fly before the " runt" has lost its down plumage. 

 When this is the case it is not infrequently left in the nest to 

 starve, or fed in so desultory and perfunctory a fashion that 

 death from neglect soon results. This fact would seem to be 

 due either to the pride which the parents take in teaching their 

 first-born to fly and capture food, or to the irksomeness of this 

 labour which leaves them little or no time to forage for the back- 

 ward bird. Similarly, late-hatched Swallows and Martins are 

 commonly left in the nest to die, and this apparently because 

 the parents are unable to resist the migratory impulse which 

 seems to possess all alike as autumn wanes. 



Again, parental love apparently disappears so soon as the 

 young are able to fend for themselves, inasmuch as they are 

 then driven away from the locality in which they were reared 

 to seek fresh pastures. As a matter of fact, however, this 

 action is really dictated by stern necessity. But for this dis- 

 persal overcrowding and inter-breeding would inevitably follow, 

 and these are two of the greatest evils that could overtake the 

 species. 



