loo Our Bird Friends. 



free use both of his legs and his wings, the hitter of 

 which he used hke oars, and said some very nasty 

 things aljout natural history photographers. It will 

 be noticed that the last two days of his bi'ief life 

 made a great difference in the length of his wing 

 qnills, A strange thing about liiiii was iliat only 

 a few hours after he bad h'ft the shell he could 

 sit straight up on end, lil^c a ginger-beer bottle, in 

 the palm of iiiy band and beg for food with his 

 little mouth very widely opened. 



As young birds groAv and fill the cavity of cup- 

 shaped nests, the mother bird, wbcn covering them 

 during periods of I'cst from ber labours and at 

 night-time, is lifted bigber and bigber: and it is 

 no uncommon tlimg to see her silting in tbe ele- 

 vated ])()sition depicted in the ilhistration of a 

 ]^)laekcap on tbe opposite page, with tbr(^e or four 

 iiKpiiring beads ibrn^t from liencatb bcr winL;s :i.nd 

 pntfcd-ont breast featbd's. 



Chicks that liave to l>e left in a nest whilst 

 their parents fly a long way ofl* in search of Ibod 

 are no doul»t a source of great anxiety : but so 

 are tbose tbal iMin about with tbeir elders dinctly 

 they are hatched. 



One day, whilst lying bidden in a crevice of 

 rock by the sea, I saw a pair of old Oyster Oatehers 

 proudly walking along the strand, liy-and-by they 

 approached my place of concealment, and as their 

 behaviour became someAvhat strange I gave them 

 particular attention. They ke])t on rmming back- 



