PARENT AND OFFSPRING 125 



parents and young. Young flamingoes feed each 

 other or exchange food sometimes (Fig. 46). 



The duties of the parents are not ended with the 

 feeding. The young ones must also be taught to 

 hunt for their own food. Nestlings are very timid, 

 and patience is essential in teaching them to use 

 their wings; when they are too timorous to venture 

 out of the nest, the parent will often fly a short dis- 

 tance away, holding some food in the beak and with 

 it tempting the little one to experiment with its 

 wings. 



It is a strange fact that many birds, as, for in- 

 stance, the eagle, drive the young away as soon 

 as they are able to support themselves. The parental 

 affection ends at the phase when the young one can fend 

 for itself; after this it is an intruder taking up room 

 where there is none to spare. Still more curious is the 

 complete want of affection exhibited by the cuckoo, 

 who places her eggs in other birds' nests and troubles 

 no more about them. Migratory birds also often 

 desert their brood when the wandering spirit is upon 

 them; they have been known to leave the half- 

 fledged nestlings, born too late in the season and 

 therefore backward in their development, to die of 

 starvation. Cruel as this may seem, it is necessary; 

 for if the parents were to remain, they would all die 

 together, so that there would be none left to bring 

 forth the next generation. This shows once more 

 that Nature cares chiefly for the race, and but little 

 for the individual. 



In mammals the earliest stages of brood-care have 

 already become part of the unconscious functioning of 

 the body. Instead of finding or making safe places for 



