THE YOUNG BIRD 



do not roll off. When blown by the wind they may 

 move, but they remain on the same spot. Such eggs 

 are pyriform. The conical eggs of plovers, snipe, 

 etc., lie in the nest with the small end inwards. Packed 

 thus they take up the minimum amount of space, and 

 can be fully covered by the parent bird. Other kinds 

 of eggs are elliptical and spherical. 



When the chick hatches, the parent bird carries 

 the broken shell some distance and drops it. A few 

 species of birds simply cast it out of the nest. 



THE YOUNG BIRD 



The young of praecocial birds, of which the game 

 birds are examples, although active from birth, are 

 unable to fly. They are covered with a thick, warm 

 coat of down, and one or both parents lead them 

 about in search of food. When alarmed they instantly 

 scatter and, crouching on the ground, as immovable 

 as a pebble they wait until the danger is past. The 

 mother bird employs many ingenious ruses to lead the 

 enemy away from the vicinity of her brood. She 

 pretends to be crippled and flutters away, or runs to a 

 distance with head low, and then, exposing her body, 

 she flutters her wings and cries shrilly to endeavour 

 to deceive the enemy into the belief the young are 

 with her, or to lead it to think she is unable to fly. 

 When a bird of prey appears overhead, the mother 

 vol. i. 225 15 



