104 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



several times for some minutes and then back into the 

 nest. Blackhead is always the leader. Twentieth 

 day: Blackhead flew out of the cage; he found no place 

 to light, fluttering high in the air all the time. He made 

 the rounds of the ceiling several times, and at last, tired 

 out, he fluttered down the wall to the floor. Twenty- 

 first day: The yellow one also flies out in the room now. 

 They can not find the way back yet. Twenty-third day: 

 Blackhead took a bath. He plunged into the large 

 shallow basin, made some awkward fluttering motions, 

 and hurried out on the other side. Twenty-fourth day: 

 Both birds fly, eat, bathe, and make their toilet alone.^^ * 



Dr. Krauss writes of the flying lessons of young 

 storks: " As soon as the young can stand firmly and get 

 to the edge of the nest, preparations for fiight begin. 

 Flapping their wings, they move round the nest, at first 

 without rising above it. Then with a kind of hop they 

 go a little higher, always hovering over the nest and 

 keeping up this climbing process until they are at least 

 a yard or two above it; they are able to continue the 

 hovering a half minute or longer, after which they anx- 

 iously cling to the horizontal projection of the nest. 

 Only when this has been repeated several times do they 

 break the magic circle, gliding boldly out into the open 

 air, describing in their flight a circle fifty or sixty 

 metres in diameter, above the nest. They repeat this 

 once, and then either fly back to the nest or rest on 

 some neighbouring roof. At the end of July or the be- 

 ginning of August begins the practice in high flying, 

 preparatory to the great migration.^' f 



The parents of sparrows, shy of flight, urge them on 



* A Bird Family, Der Zoolopsche Garten, June, 1891. 

 •f Krauss, Aus dem Freileben des Weissen Storchs, Der Zoolo- 

 gischen Garten, ix (1868), p. 131. 



