410 LAND BIRDS 
is always surprisingly well lined and deeper than would 
naturally be judged from the side view. Eggs are laid 
in April most frequently, and, since incubation lasts nine- 
teen or twenty days, the young usually make their ap- 
pearance about the first of May. They are naked and 
blind, of an ugly greenish hue, and very repulsive to 
look at. Only one brood is raised in a season, and the 
remaining summer months are devoted to the training of 
these nestlings. At the end of two weeks they appear 
at the edge of the nest, looking out over the sunny 
slopes with unwinking blue eyes. From this time until 
they leave, when three and a half weeks old, they are 
very restless. Little wings are constantly stretched and 
flapped, uncertain little legs are trained to balance the 
heavy body, bills grow strong by tearing the food, and 
before the day for venturing out into the great unfriendly 
world has come, they have learned much. What yet 
remains for them to learn the adults will teach them day 
by day. Instinct plays a far smaller part in their cun- 
ning than we have long been taught to believe, and even 
in crow education it is the example of the adults that 
teaches the helpless young what to do and how to do it. 
Let anyone who doubts this course of training, or is in- 
clined to consider that this opinion is founded on senti- 
ment and not on science, watch the development of a 
family of young crows. 
