104 ANIMALS OF NO IMPORTANCE. 



without meeting the home-going cattle. The thick-headed 

 cowherd has not the least control over them ; they spread 

 themselves all over the road, and promptly turn tail and 

 run when they see a horseman. Quite a young calf will, 

 with seeming ease, keep ahead of a horse going at the rate 

 of eight miles an hour. 



With carnivores the case is different. It is indeed im- 

 portant that they should be born before they are very large, 

 more important even than in the case of the herbivora, since 

 the latter find their food growing round about them while 

 the former have to hunt it. On the other hand, there is no 

 necessity for young carnivora to be able to run when first 

 born, since they have but few enemies, and are hidden away 

 safely in a den. Thus young carnivores are born with all 

 their limbs in proportion, and although blind, and other- 

 wise not so highly developed as young herbivores, show 

 a greater resemblance to the parents. A similar difference 

 is noticeable between the young of birds, which build nests, 

 and those which do not. Take, for instance, two well- 

 known Indian birds : the myna and the common fowl. The 

 myna never appears in public in a hobbledehoy stage. 

 When first hatched it is a ghastly sight, blind and naked, 

 all beak and crop, and altogether incapable of looking after 

 itself. It is, however, safe in the nest and well looked 

 after by the fond parents. Soon the feathers appear, it 

 quickly attains the form of the adult, and becomes generally 

 presentable, and then, and not till then, it leaves the nest. 

 Thus the young myna is nursed in the lap of luxury ; it 

 has no work to do as a youngster, and repays its parents 

 for the care they have lavished upon it by flying out of the 

 nest and strutting about " with an elegant tripping gait, 

 like that of a neatly built ballet girl, alert and brave, in 

 bright yellow boots." But for its size and its feeble flight, 

 it is indistinguishable from its parents. The young bird is 

 very proud of being able to fly, and executes every motion 

 most correctly, like a schoolgirl at her first dance when she 

 silently counts the steps, trembling lest she should make a 



