ANIMAL COMMUNICATION 



it is the order of nature. They are not trained in the 

 way they should go, as a child is by its human par 

 ents they are not trained at all; but their natu 

 ral instincts doubtless act more promptly and surely 

 with the mother than without her. That a young 

 kingfisher or a young osprey would, in due time, 

 dive for fish, or a young marsh hawk catch mice 

 and birds, or a young fox or wolf or coon hunt for 

 its proper prey without the parental example, ad 

 mits of no doubt at all ; but they would each prob 

 ably do this thing earlier and better in the order of 

 nature than if that order were interfered with. 



The other day I saw a yellow-bellied woodpecker 

 alight upon a decaying beech and proceed to drill 

 for a grub. Two of its fully grown young followed 

 it and, alighting near, sidled up to where the parent 

 was drilling. A hasty observer would say that the 

 parent was giving its young a lesson in grub-hunt 

 ing, but I read the incident differently. The parent 

 bird had no thought of its young. It made passes at 

 them when they came too near, and drove them away. 

 Presently it left the tree, whereupon one of the young 

 examined the hole its parent had made and drilled a 

 little on its own account. A parental example like 

 this may stimulate the young to hunt for grubs ear 

 lier than they would otherwise do, but this is merely 

 conjecture. There is no proof of it, nor can there 

 be any. 



The mother bird or beast does not have to be 

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