BIRDS AT SCHOOL 113 



peck at first at some nasty insects which, after 

 experience of their bad taste, they do not care 

 to try again. They also learn not only to 

 lie still when the old bird gives the alarm-call, 

 but to avoid enemies on their own account 

 when they have been warned a few times. 

 So their education goes on by degrees, and 

 by the time they are grown up they have 

 learnt most of what they will ever need to 

 know. But as their schooling has to be gone 

 through while they are still very small and 

 cannot fly, it is not often that the whole brood 

 lives to grow up in the wilds ; some of the 

 little things are certain to be snapped up by 

 some enemy or other, or they may meet with 

 accidents, such as falling into holes or cracks, 

 or wander so far away from the old ones that 

 they never find them again, and die of cold. 



Some birds are better than others at looking 

 after active young ones ; the common hen is 

 much better than the pheasant, and will save 

 more of her brood, for the hen pheasant is 

 careless, and if she has had to fly away and 

 leave her chickens to hide, is quite contented 

 if she can collect two or three of them when 

 she comes back, and goes off leaving the rest 



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