TRAINING OF YOUNG BIRDS. 215 



a brood of ducklings, for example, it might be plausi- 

 bly alleged, that their parents taught them to swim, 

 because the mother may be seen swimming before 

 them as their leader, and the little things all paddling 

 after her according to their strength or their agility. 

 But, in order to prove this view to be correct, it would 

 be indispensable to show that the ducklings could not 

 swim till they were instructed by their mother, which 

 clearly appears not to be the case, for a duckling, 

 as soon as it acquires the requisite strength of foot, 

 which occurs a very short time after it is hatched, 

 takes to the water and swims as dexterously as its 

 mother herself can do. Nay, it can not only swim so 

 as merely to keep itself afloat, but it knows, without 

 any instruction, how to proportion the frequency and 

 force of the strokes of either foot so as to carry it to 

 any part of the pond it chooses, as acurately as if it 

 were profoundly acquainted with the mathematical 

 problems of the composition and resolution offerees. 

 No instruction nor imitation of the parent will account 

 for this, inasmuch as ducklings hatched in an oven 

 will take to the water as readily as those tended by a 

 female duck ; arid, in the common occurrence of their 

 being hatched under a hen, they will swim away and 

 leave their foster-mother on the bank of the pond in 

 utter despair for their safety. This proves not only 

 that they can swim without instruction, but in op- 

 position to the most earnest solicitude of their sole 

 instructress. We have witnessed a similar case, no 

 less in point, in a brood of turkeys hatched by a goose, 

 which their foster-mother, as was natural, was de- 

 sirous of leading into the water; but this they re- 

 fused as obstinately as ducklings do to quit the 

 water when recalled by a hen*. 



As to what is alleged about the old birds warning 1 

 the young ones of danger from their natural enemies, 

 *J.R, 



