XLIII 



THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG 

 BIRDS 



A CERTAIN school of naturalists, in which 

 Americans figure largely, lays great stress 

 on the way in which parent birds and 

 beasts educate their offspring. According 

 to this school, a young bird is, like a human babe, born 

 with its mind a blank, and has to be taught by its 

 parents everything that it is necessary for a bird to 

 know. Just as children study at various educational 

 establishments, so do young animals attend what Mr. 

 W. J. Long calls " the school of the woods." "After 

 many years of watching animals in their native 

 haunts," he writes, " I am convinced that instinct 

 conveys a much smaller part than we have supposed ; 

 that an animal's success or failure in the ceaseless 

 struggle for life depends, not upon instinct, but upon 

 the kind of training which the animal receives from its 

 mother." In short, but for its parents, a young bird 

 would never learn to find its food, to fly, or sing, or build 

 a nest. 



This theory appears to have met with wide accept- 

 ance, chiefly because it brings animals into line with 



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