One of the most striking of the coloured plates in this volume is 
that of a woodcock carrying one of its nestlings to a distant 
feeding place. This habit is well known. It is not often that the 
necessity arises, but there are occasions where suitable nesting and 
feeding grounds cannot be found together, or when, as during 
prolonged drought, the normal feeding area dries up. Then, 
instinctively, the parent will surmount the dangers of starvation 
for their offspring, by conveying them to a land of plenty, 
returning again to the shelter of the wood as soon as the meal 
is over. The weight of a newly-hatched nestling, it is true, could 
scarcely be called a “ burden.” But they are carried about thus 
until they are strong enough to perform the journey for them- 
selves. Thus, then, towards the end of the nursing period the 
weight to be carried is by no means a light one. 
But it was shown, long since, by direct experiment, that the 
area of a bird’s wing is considerably in excess of what is required 
for the purpose of flight. Dr. J. Bell Pettigrew, more than fifty 
years ago, to test this matter, cut off more than half of the 
secondary wing feathers of a sparrow, parallel with the long axis 
of the wing. He first clipped one, then both wings, and found 
that in both cases flight was apparently unimpaired. He then 
removed a fourth of the primary feathers—the outermost quills 
—and still the flight was unimpaired. At any rate the bird 
flew upwards of thirty yards, rose to a considerable height and 
