CHAPTER IX 



YOUTH, MATURITY, AND AGE 



THE lives of most young birds are fairly familiar to 

 most of us. Young chickens, not long after they are 

 hatched, run after their mother, picking up what she 

 tells them to eat, and listening to her warning cry. 

 Young ducks soon take to the water, and the method 

 of their bringing-up may be easily seen. Young 

 Blackbirds stay long in the nest and wait open-mouthed 

 to be fed. All this is an old story. There is one bird, 

 the Hoatzin, the bird of British Guiana already men- 

 tioned, whose infant life and infant powers it is difficult 

 to describe without exciting incredulity in the mind of 

 the reader. But the interest does not end with the 

 strangeness of the bird and its ways. As we watch 

 him we may feel sure that we are learning much 

 of the build and of the habits of many ancient birds 

 that have made room for more highly developed 

 types. 



The Hoatzin is more nearly related to the Fowls 

 than to any other birds. But he diverges from them 

 so far that he is regarded as the sole representative of 



