96 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



helpless " squeakers," not active little runners 

 like the chicks of the real partridges, which 

 belong to the fowl family. 



So it is with the water-birds ; one would 

 expect all the web-footed birds to hatch out 

 lively little swimmers like young ducks, or gos- 

 lings, but when one comes to know the different 

 families one finds it is not so ; the cormorant, 

 which belongs to a different family from the 

 duck and goose, has, as I said in a previous 

 chapter, helpless young ones like young 

 pigeons, which are brought up in a nest, and 

 never take to the water till they are full-fledged. 



If you come across a bird of a family you 

 do not know, you can generally guess what its 

 young ones would be like by looking at its 

 feet. This sounds strange, but the explana- 

 tion is simple enough. Birds which have 

 helpless young ones generally build their nests 

 high up, and such birds have large hind-toes, 

 so that their feet are suited for grasping and 

 holding on to a perch, as you can see with 

 pigeons and canaries ; therefore, if your strange 

 bird has a grasping foot like this, you can be 

 pretty certain that its young ones will be 

 hatched blind and helpless. 



