98 Our Bird Friends. 



twenty inclies. I wondered what would have hap- 

 pened to a child standing three feet in height after 

 falling one hundred and twenty feet and striking 

 nothing but hard rocks. 



The chicks of some species grow very rapidly, 

 as will be seen from the accompanying series of 

 illustrations representing the first Aveek of the life 

 of a baby Blackbird. 



The Q^^g in the first picture on the next page 

 was photographed on the morning of the 9th of 

 May, and the chick, which was carefully marked, at 

 ten o'clock every morning from the 10th to the IGth 

 of the month, when it and its brothers and sisters 

 were slain by a cat, to my great grief The camera 

 was most carefully fixed on wooden pegs driven into 

 the ground, and the distance from the lens to a dot 

 in the centre of the black board on which the chick 

 rested was measured every time a plate was exposed, 

 so as to ensure absolute accuracy. 



On the morning of the 10th, 11th, and ]2tli the 

 little fellow lay (piite still Avhilsl Imving his portrait 

 taken; but on the 13th he began to struggle, and 

 on the following day his eyes Avcre partly open. 

 On the 15th his eyes were a bit more widely opened 

 and his feathers shooting quite nicely. He grcAv 

 very uneasy, and before the plate was exposed 

 upon him began to kick, struggle, and roll about 

 and tell us in the plainest of bird language, " Me 

 Avon't sit;" On the 16th — his last day of facing the 

 camera troubles, poor little chap 1 — he made very 



