252 JUNGLE FOLK 



blue-crowned hanging parrakeets, or rather the hens, 

 certainly do carry up to the nesting-hole bark, etc., 

 but they carry it, not in the back, but tucked in 

 between the feathers of the neck and breast." This 

 neat method of convejdng material to the nest is, there- 

 fore, certainly an instinctive act, as is almost every 

 other operation connected with nest-building. 



To sum up. The parental teaching forms a far less 

 important factor in the education of birds than many 

 naturalists have been led by careless observation to 

 believe. Birds may be said to be born educated in the 

 sense that poets are born, not made. In each case 

 education puts on the finishing touches to the handi- 

 work of nature. 



