56 More Tales of the Birds 



as on the young pheasants and partridges and 

 chickens. And their education is very easy, for 

 they seem to know a good deal already about 

 the things of the world into which they have 

 only just begun to peep. 



So one lovely day in June the whole family 

 set out for the bank of the river, the young ones 

 eager to learn, and the old ones only too anxious 

 to teach. For what they had to learn was not 

 merely how to find their food that they would 

 soon enough discover for themselves but what 

 to do in case of danger ; and as they tripped 

 along, the mother in her delicate grey dress, 

 white below with darker throat and breast, and 

 the young ones in mottled grey and brown, so 

 that you could hardly tell them among the pebbles 

 and their shadows, she gave them their first 

 lesson, while the father flew down the river and 

 back again to exercise his wings and to look 

 for food. 



They had not gone far when suddenly their 

 mother cried "wheet whee-t" with an accent 

 they already knew, and flew away from them, 

 calling loudly as she went. The little ones, 



