THE WAGTAILS 251 



he has been kept a long while fasting, and, moreover, on subsequent 

 occasions, the same process is observable refusal in the one case, 

 compliance in the other nor do the parts played by the two young 

 wagtails appear to be transposed. This greater assiduity of the 

 mother in feeding one of her two chicks, or her feeding it alone, 

 may possibly be accounted for by the favoured one being the 

 younger of the two, though the difference could be but slight; but 

 why does she sometimes fly down beside the other one, with insects 

 in her beak, as if to feed it, and then fly away again with them, as 

 described ? That there is any clear idea in her mind of thus bringing 

 the elder members of the brood into activity, and so leading them, 

 by degrees, to seek their own food, I do not find it easy to believe, 

 yet her conduct might very well have that effect. In fact, a time 

 must come when the parent bird can, or rather will, no longer feed 

 the young, and we must suppose it to come before the latter are 

 able, or have acquired the habit of catching insects, themselves, since, 

 as long as they were waited on by their dams, they would not trouble 

 to do so. Natural selection must do the rest, and the contrary 

 impulses to provide, and to leave off providing, food for the offspring, 

 may perhaps account for such scenes as the above. It is curious, 

 however, that, in the particular case witnessed, a disinclination to feed 

 one chick which seemed the elder went hand in hand with a readi- 

 ness to minister to the wants of the younger. Yet I cannot suppose 

 that we see here an intelligent discernment, on the part of the parent 

 bird, as between one child and another, though a well-developed human 

 mind would appear, in practice, to be the key that the evolutionary 

 ornithologist of the twentieth century carries about with him, to unlock 

 the mystery of avine habit, as opposed to avine structure. For myself, 

 I must look elsewhere. It seems likely that the parental instinct, if 

 it ended gradually, would also end capriciously, and, moreover, that 

 there was really any " working difference " between the ages of these 

 two young wagtails, it would be more than rash to assume. 



It has been seen that, like the pipits, the courtship of the 



