LEARNING TO LIVE 189 



without food, but there was a lack of precision in their aim. 

 Many of the first day's pecks were misses, but the learning 

 was very rapid, and it was noted that the young gulls were 

 far ahead of young coots in the precision of their early 

 pecking. Even on the first day some fed repeatedly and 

 heartily, but this varied with the individual. 



Some preening was observed on the first day, and the 

 general vertebrate action of raising the hind foot to scratch 

 the head seen in frog, lizard, chick, kitten, etc. was 

 frequently noticed. Almost from the first, too, there was 

 a slight use of the wings in balancing. 



On the first day a young bird turned its head towards 

 the cheep of another in a separate compartment of the 

 incubator and cheeped as ij in response. A third, still 

 within the egg (chipped), often uttered a note, twice re- 

 peated, when the others cheeped. But only a few observa- 

 tions of this sort were made. Little or no attention was 

 paid to noises, except to a prolonged low whistle, which 

 was followed by cowering, even on the first day after 

 hatching. 



On the second day the pecking was vigorous and pre- 

 cise ; the young birds followed bright objects by moving 

 the head and neck, and pecked at them in motion. They 

 attended to sleeve-links, ring, silver spoon, and similar 

 shining things. They would look up in answer to a tap 

 on the window of their cradle perhaps because of the 

 actual vibration, but they took no heed of snapping fingers, 

 of the ring of a spoon on a glass beaker, of the rubbing 

 of a cork on glass, and many other striking noises. They 

 shrank a little from a sharp hand-clap close to them, but 

 did not cower, and it may have been the gust of air that 

 affected them. A prolonged low whistle again made them 

 crouch in silence, but after a number of trials on one day 

 (the second) one of them entirely ceased to respond. It 



