TRAINING OF YOUNG BIRDS. 171 
race did many of them dwell in the same district. 
For which reason they hasten to drive away their 
young at a certain age from their boundaries, and 
then, if a scarcity of provision occur, the male and 
female put one another to death. 
Another bird celebrated for instructing its young 
is the stork. When the wings of the young storks 
begin to grow, they are said to try their strength in 
fluttering about the nest; though it often happens 
that, in this exercise, some of them fall and are un- 
able to regain their place. When they first ven- 
ture to commit themselves to the air, the mother 
leads them in small circumvolutions about the nest, 
whither she conducts them back, and about the end 
of August, the young ones having acquired strength, 
unite with the old ones for the purpose of migra- 
tion. ‘‘ When the young storks,” says Bonnet, as if 
speaking from observation, ‘‘ begin to try their 
wings, the mother fails not to watch over and con- 
duct them. She exercises them by little and little 
in short flights around the nest, to which she soon 
conducts them again. She continues her attention 
for a long time, and does not abandon them till 
their education is completed.” 
We are disposed, however, to look upon much 
that has been written respecting parent birds in- 
structing their young as merely fanciful ; and wheth- 
er we are right in this may be readily verified by 
observing and comparing facts of daily occurrence. 
In the case of a brood of ducklings, for example, it 
might be plausibly alleged that their parents taught 
them to swim, because the mother may be seen 
swimming before them as their leader, and the little 
things all paddling after her, according to their 
strength or their agility. But, in order to prove 
this view to be correct, it would be indispensable 
to show that the ducklings could not swim till 
they were instructed by their mother, which clear- 
ly appears not to be the case; for a duckling, as 
