RED-LETTER DAYS AMONG BIRDS 



71 



few hours old, also possesses the parental habit in a marked 

 degree. A lustrous-eyed youngster of this species, which was 

 not quick enough to escape my grasp, enabled me to carry out 

 the experiment of placing it on a white handkerchief to see what 

 would happen. The result is shown in Fig. 33, as the bird at once 

 squatted and thus rendered itself motionless. This would have 

 served the purpose in view if I had not taken the precaution to 

 place the fledgling on a white background, the result being that, 



FIG. 34. YOUXG Si j ARROW HAWK. 



whilst the experiment proved inherited tendency, the bird was 

 unconscious of the fact that it was still plainly to be seen upon 

 the artificial environment whereon I had placed it. Incidentally, 

 it may be mentioned that another ground-nesting species, the 

 Lapwing, does not take to squatting or skulking when dis- 

 turbed, for the young one, even when only one hour old, resorts 

 to running away as fast as its long little legs can carry it, and, 

 if I had placed a baby Lapwing on my handkerchief, it would 

 never have remained long enough for the photograph, from 

 which the sketch was made, to be taken. 



The young Sparrow Hawk is a ferocious personage to encounter 



