1 66 Bird Comrades 



the young birds seemed to be moved to it by an impera- 

 tive command. Nor were they long satisfied with a low 

 perch, but instinctively mounted to the highest one they 

 could find. 



The same was true in regard to flight. No feathered 

 adult was present to tutor them in the art of using their 

 wings, yet they soon acquired that power of their own 

 accord. It was inborn the gift of flight. True, they 

 were awkward at first, and gained skill only by degrees, 

 but the original impulse was in their constitution. It is 

 no doubt true that parent birds in the outdoors do give 

 their young lessons in flight, but if the bantlings were 

 left to themselves, they would acquire that art through 

 their original endowment, although more slowly and with 

 many more hard knocks. 



As every one knows, juvenile birds at first open their 

 mouths for their food. Proof may not be at hand for the 

 opinion, but I am disposed to believe that they never need 

 to be told by their parents to do that; their instincts 

 prompt them. It must be so, I think, for to suppose that 

 the bird baby only a day or two from the shell could 

 understand a parental command to open its mouth would 

 be to presume that it has the instinct to grasp the mean- 

 ing of such a behest, and that is more difficult to believe 

 than that Nature simply impels it to take its food by open- 

 ing its mandibles. 



Now, when the young birds are taken from the nest and 

 reared by hand, they insist for a long time on being fed 

 in the juvenile manner. However, by and by they begin 



