Locomotion in Young Birds. 71 



other, or when they encounter some stranger, such as, 

 for example, a chick, or even a little one of their own 

 kind, whose wings or toes they will seize and worry, or 

 perhaps a,n impertinent sparrow who invades their garden 

 precincts. 



My first experiments with more fully fledged birds were 

 on house-martins. Two were taken from different nests. 

 In one the wings were already well developed, and it flew 

 round and round the room. In the other the wing feathers 

 were shorter, and the wings as a whole blunter. This 

 latter one could only flutter along the ground. I then 

 allowed it to flutter over a table, and, when it reached 

 the edge, it flew to the floor with definite progression, 

 alighting awkwardly about four feet from the table. It 

 also flew down from my hand held above my head, but 

 had to be shaken off, as it was loth to start of itself, 

 clinging tightly to my finger. Seeing that it could only 

 flutter along the ground, it was very improbable that this 

 bird had ever left the nest before it was brought to me, 

 but of this I had no direct proof. 



I asked my friend, Mr. H. F. Howard, who had kindly 

 procured these martins for me, to watch a nest containing 

 three young swallows, whose parents had built on a ledge 

 specially placed there for the purpose in the porch of his 

 uncle's house. In the fulness of time they came to the 

 edge of the nest, standing there extending and fluttering 

 their wings. One of them, about a fortnight old, or a day 

 or two more, we took to the study. It clung to my finger 

 with its sharp claws, but on being detached, a foot or so 

 from the floor, flew off. Tossed into the air, it flew round 

 three sides of the room, but did not rise much, striking 

 the window-blind about four feet from the floor, and then 

 coming to the ground. In further trials it alighted awk- 

 wardly on the edge of a shelf, and clung there, swallow- 



