213 HABITS OF BIRDS, 



fish to learn to swim, or young 1 bees and butterflies 

 to learn to fly, since in these cases the parents are 

 either far distant or dead before the young are hatched 

 from the eggs*? 



In this manner we should explain such obser- 

 vations as the following, which are coloured in con- 

 formity with Bonnet's theory : " The progressive 

 method by which the young swallows are introduced 

 to their proper habits is very curious. They first, but 

 not without some difficulty, emerge from the shaft ; 

 for a day or two they are fed on the chimney top, and 

 then are conducted to the dead leafless bough of 

 some neighbouring tree, where, sitting in a row, they 

 are attended by the parents with great assiduity. In 

 a day or two after this they are strong enough to fly, 

 but they continue still unable to take their own food. 

 They, therefore, play about near the place where the 

 dams are watching for flies; and when a mouthful 

 is collected, at a certain signal, the dam and the nest-^ 

 ling advance, rising towards each other, and meeting 

 at an angle, the young one all the while uttering 

 such a short quick note of gratitude and complacency 

 that a person must have paid very little regard to the 

 wonders of nature who has not remarked this scene t-" 

 On the same principle it is said that the male assists 

 the female stone-curlew (CEdicnemus crepitans, 

 TEMMINCK) 4< in conducting the young, whose edu- 

 cation, notwithstanding, appears to be rather slow J." 



In the instance, again, of impending danger, or on 

 the approach of an enemy, the parent birds eagerly 

 express their feelings of solicitude, though it is ques- 

 tionable, we think, whether the cries they utter are 

 meant or understood by the young as invitations 

 to fly to a place of greater security. We have in 

 this way observed, in the case of a brood of young 



* J. K. f Bing!ey,ii. 341, 6th edit. 



J Griffith's Cuvier, viii. 457. 



