CHAPTER VII 



BIRDS IN THE NURSERY 



THE bringing up of any young creature is 

 very interesting to watch, and this is particu- 

 larly so with young birds, for these belong to 

 different types according to the kind of birds 

 their parents are, and so one has a good chance 

 of finding out interesting things about them. 



Even among our few kinds of tame birds 

 we can notice many important things about 

 young birds ; in particular, they show us the 

 two leading types of baby birds, which we 

 may call the active and passive, the run- 

 abouts and the lie-abeds. Every one has 

 seen how very lively are young chickens 

 and ducks, very soon after they have been 

 hatched ; they are covered with a thick 

 coat of very pretty down, and are very much 

 interested in finding their food and in the 

 world about them generally. Nearly all the 

 care they want from the old bird is to be 



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