122 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



Then on the other side, there is at least one 

 family of tree-haunting and high-nesting birds which 

 has active young, that of the Curassows and Guans 

 (Cracidce), perching game-birds with gripping feet, 

 which take the place of Pheasants and their kin in 

 the forests of the warm parts of America. The 

 chicks here are fed by the parent for a day or so 

 at any rate, judging from the behaviour of captive 

 specimens, and they are hatched with the wing- 

 feathers as well developed as in a chicken a fortnight 

 old ; it seems that they follow the parents along 

 the boughs and creeping vines so I was told by a 

 naturalist, who said the chicks could be caught by 

 shaking them down ; no doubt this is one reason 

 why so many of these birds are so extraordinarily 

 tame in captivity ; they have presumably been 

 hand-reared after such a method of capture. 



Some of the typical game-birds, for instance the 

 Javan Peacock (Pavo muticus), the Tragopans, and 

 also the Argus, have the quills well developed at 

 birth, so that there is not such a great gap between 

 more ordinary game-birds and the young of the 

 Megapodes or Mound-builders, which are hatched 

 with wings quite full-fledged and fit for immediate 

 flight, though the body is downy. These represent 

 the extreme of precocity in modern birds, and are 

 the most independent of all young ones, since the 

 parents take no trouble about them at all, as, being 

 able both to feed and to fly, as well as to run, all 

 they need to gain is experience and size in order 

 to be as good as any adult. 



