214 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



t( High from the summit of a craggy cliff 

 Hung o'er the deep, such as amazing frowns 

 On utmost Kilda's shore, whose lonely race 

 Resign the setting sun to Indian worlds, 

 The royal eagle draws his vigorous young, 

 Strong-pounced, and ardent with paternal fire. 

 Now fit to raise a kingdom of their own, 

 He drives them from his fort, the tow'ring seat 

 For ages, of his empire ; which in peace, 

 Unstain'd he holds, while many a league to sea 

 He wings his course and preys in distant isles." 



Another bird celebrated for instructing its young 

 is the stork. When the wings of the young- storks 

 begin to grow, they are said to try their strength in 

 fluttering about the nest, though it often happens 

 that, in this exercise, some of them fall and are un- 

 able to regain their place. When they first venture 

 to commit themselves to the air, the mother leads 

 them in small circumvolutions about the nest, whither 

 she conducts them back, and about the end of August, 

 the young ones having acquired strength, unite with 

 the old ones for the purpose of migration *. " When 

 the young storks," says Bonnet, as if speaking from 

 observation, " begin to try their wings, the mother 

 fails not to watch over and conduct them. She ex- 

 ercises them by little and little in' short flights around 

 the nest, to which she soon conducts them again. 

 She continues her attention for a long time, and 

 does not abandon them till their education is com- 

 pleted f." 



We are disposed, however, to look upon much that 

 has been written respecting parent birds instructing 

 their young as merely fanciful, and whether we are 

 right in this may be readily verified by observing and 

 comparing facts of daily occurrence. In the case of 



* Buffon, Oiseaux, vol. viii. 

 t Contempt, de la Nature, pi. xi. c. vi, note 5. 



