340 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



covered, it is easily intelligible that the nestlings 

 are peculiarly liable to inflammations or fevers, 

 originating in the dangerous effects of extremes of 

 temperature or of wet. It has pleased the great 

 Creator of the world, with all its beautiful systems 

 of being, to provide against much of the risk 

 which the nestlings would otherwise incur, in cases 

 where the climate is constantly severe, by the 

 envelopment of a dense coat of down ; but in 

 temperate latitudes by appointing the time for the 

 development of the chick from its shell at that 

 season of the year when exposure is less dangerous 

 than at any other. The cold and rainy months of 

 winter and early spring are times when hatching 

 does not take place. But as the months move 

 forward, and bring warmer weather and serener 

 skies, the forests and fields abound in nests filled 

 with chirping young. Even with this precaution 

 disease will attack the chick, and it may die in the 

 very midst of a thriving family. Sometimes this 

 untimely death is the result of an accident. The 

 parent in gathering her brood under her unhappily 

 tramples upon one of them, and the poor chick 

 perishes. This event is more common among 

 domestic fowls than among others. Sometimes the 



