BIRDS AT SCHOOL 111 



enough. I was able to see this very well 

 with a brood of starlings which were reared 

 in a hole in a roof below a window in some 

 lodgings I occupied many years ago at Oxford ; 

 when the young ones were getting well 

 feathered, one generally had his head out of 

 the hole when an old bird arrived. No doubt 

 he stood on his brothers ; at any rate he got 

 nearly all the food until he had had enough, 

 some being at times snapped up by another 

 head which appeared a little lower down. In 

 breeding pigeons, too, you can generally notice 

 that the young one which is hatched from 

 the first of their two eggs gets more food than 

 its brother or sister which comes out of the 

 second egg, simply because it is stronger and 

 more pushing. So it is with canaries ; if 

 you want all the brood to have a fair chance, 

 it is best to take away all the first eggs as fast 

 as the hen lays them, and put them back 

 when the last is laid, so that all the young ones 

 can be hatched at once and have a fair start. 



This practice of feeding the young accord- 

 ing to the principle of " those who don't ask 

 won't have " must be useful to birds which 

 build dark covered nests with only a little 



