LIFE IN A PINE WOOD 11 



of the vigilance and extraordinary secretiveness of 

 the parent birds. Never once had they uttered a 

 sound or allowed themselves to be seen. Now 

 that their young were out and able to fly, they no 

 longer found it necessary to make themselves in- 

 visible on the appearance of the human form in 

 the wood. At all events, after keeping the young 

 concealed for the space of three or four days, they 

 began to show themselves openly, pursued by the 

 young, wailing and screaming to be fed. All day 

 long these whining cries were heard, and it was 

 plain that a new system had been adopted by the 

 parent birds at this stage, which was to keep their 

 young on short commons, instead of supplying 

 them with more food than they could consume. 

 The result was that the young, instead of sitting 

 idly waiting for small birds, properly plucked, 

 to be brought and dropped at their feet, were 

 driven by hunger to fly after the parent birds, 

 who led them an endless chase in and out and 

 above the trees. It all looked like a great waste 

 of energy, but it had an important use in teach- 

 ing the young to fly and to develop the wing 

 muscles by incessant exercise. These exercises con- 

 tinued for five or six days in the wood, then followed 

 a fresh move ; every morning early the wood was 

 quitted by the whole family, the young, no doubt, 

 being conducted to a clump on one of the extensive 

 tracts of heath in the neighbourhood. There they 

 would have other and more important lessons to 

 learn. The young hawk would have to pluck the 



