CHILDHOOD 



mice to the wired enclosure where its nestlings 

 were confined. 



Certain birds will carry their young bodily 

 from what they conceive to be the danger zone. 

 This has been proved conclusively in regard to 

 the woodcock, and there is reason to believe that 

 it also, on occasion, applies to the snipe. Two 

 writers in the " Field" have stated that they 

 have witnessed such an occurrence, and we have 

 received the following corroboration from a lady 

 in Suffolk. " I should like to state" — she writes, 

 "that when I was down on the marshes near 

 Bungay I saw, at close quarters, a snipe pick up 

 one of her brood and fly away with it. She held 

 it apparently between her beak and her breast 

 and made three attempts to pick it up before 

 rising in the air and successfully flying off with it." 



The description of the way of bearing the 

 burden coincides with the m.anner of the wood- 

 cock : an incident, we believe, that the writer had 

 never witnessed. 



It has been stated that guillemots and razor- 

 bills carry their young on their backs from the 

 lofty ledges of the cliff to the sea below. We have 

 never found reliable evidence of this, nor do we 

 believe it to be necessary. The fully -fledged 

 young stand for days on the ledges, extending 

 from time to time, their wings. A slight impetus 

 given by the parents would launch them into the 

 air when with fully spread pinions they would 

 easily make the descent with safety. 



That most birds have the parental instinct 

 strongly developed may be seen in many ways. 

 It is often, indeed, brought to bear vicariously 

 in the case of the nestlings of other birds. 



If a pair of house-martins when rearing, suffer 

 from some fatality, it is no uncommon thing to 

 see the neighbours adopting the orphans, and 



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