PHASES OF BIRD LIFE. 185 
after the cavity had been made and the eggs de- 
posited, thus blasting the hopes of the kingfishers. 
However, they had not become despondent, for, 
later in the season, they burrowed a hole for an 
underground nursery in another part of the bank. 
TE 
BIRD HIGH SCHOOLS. 
Ir is not to be supposed that there is a regularly 
graded system of instruction in the school-life of 
the birds. There may be method in their learning, 
but it would be difficult to state positively just where 
the primary, grammar, high-school, and college grades 
merge into one another, or when diplomas of effi- 
ciency are granted, if granted at all. But that there 
is something of a system of pedagogy among birds, 
and that the juniors do receive instruction from their 
seniors, no observer of feathered life can doubt for 
a moment. In the systems of human instruction 
the child-life of the young learner usually ends with 
his high-school course ; he then stands at the thresh- 
old of young manhood, ready to do a good deal of 
wrestling with his problems on his own account. 
Taking that fact as our cue, we should say that the 
high-school instruction of the youthful bird begins 
when he leaves the nest, and ends when he is able 
to fly with dexterity, and provide for his own sup- 
port, at least in the main. It is not probable that 
the lecture system prevails in the bird community, 
