HIS FIRST FLIGHT 31 
and tumbles about as if she could not fly. If it 
is a man or an animal who has frightened her, 
he will usually think he can easily catch her ; 
so he will forget about the young ones, and fol- 
low her as she goes fluttering over the ground. 
She will go on playing that she is hurt, and 
moving away, till she leads him far from her 
brood. Then she will start up and fly away, 
and he cannot find his way back to where the 
little ones are still crouching. 
Sometimes when a mother is frightened, she 
will snatch up her young one between her feet, 
and fly away with it. Sometimes a mother will 
fight, actually fly into the face of the one she 
fears. Often, too, other birds come to her aid; 
birds of many kinds, — eatbirds, robins, thrash- 
ers, and others,— all come to help her drive 
away the enemy, for birds are almost always 
ready to help each other. 
I once found a young blue jay who had come 
to the ground while trying his first flight. I 
thought I would pick him up and put him on a 
branch. But the old birds did not know what I 
meant to do, and perhaps they were afraid I 
would carry him off. 
They flew at me with loud cries to drive me 
away, and I thought it best to go, for I did not 
want to make them any more unhappy than they 
were already. 
