204 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



distanced all his competitors, he proclaimed with a 

 mighty voice his monarchy over all things that had 

 wings. Suddenly, however, the wren, who had 

 secreted himself under the feathers of the eagle's 

 crest, broke from his hiding-place and flew upwards 

 chirping, " Birds, behold your king! " 



There are but few languages certainly no 

 European ones in which some version of this story 

 does not exist; but its chief interest for us at the 

 moment is that here we have mention of one bird 

 carrying another through the air. 



It happens that ornithologists are just now very 

 much occupied with the question Do large birds 

 assist smaller ones on their aerial migrations? This 

 is an interesting question. Undoubtedly large birds 

 have the power of conveying smaller ones; they 

 carry their young, for instance. Not only do swans, 

 coots, grebes and moor-hens carry their young on 

 their backs whilst swimming, but the same birds 

 transport their young whilst flying. Even such an 

 ungainly bird as the mallard has been known to 

 convey its young from elevated situations; in one 

 case from an oak twenty-five feet in height, in another 

 from a deserted hawk's nest; in others from the 

 fork of a tall elm, and from the nest of a crow at least 

 thirty feet from the ground. Another duck, the 

 golden-eye, which builds in holes in trees, has been 

 seen to transport its young to the water. Whilst 



