HIS EDUCATION 35 
ground, and shows him where the worms live 
and how to get them. The owl mother finds a 
mouse creeping about in the grass, and teaches 
the owlets how to pounce upon it, by doing it 
herself before them. 
The old swallow takes her youngsters into the 
air, and shows them how to catch little flies on 
the wing; while mother pheebe teaches hers to 
sit still and watch till a fly comes near, and then 
fly out and catch it. 
If you watch long enough, after a while you 
may see the old bird, who is training a young 
one, fly away. She may leave the young one 
alone on a tree or the ground, and be gone a 
long time. 
Before many minutes the little one will get 
hungry, and begin to call for food. But by 
and by, if nobody comes to feed him, he will 
think to look around for something to eat. 
Thus he will get his lesson in helping himself. 
Once I saw a woodpecker father bring his 
little one to a fence, close by some raspberry 
bushes that were full of berries. He fed him 
two or three berries, to teach him what they 
were and where they grew, and then quietly 
slipped away. 
When the young bird began to feel hungry 
he cried out; but nobody came. Then he looked 
