64 
THE nestling birds shown in the accompany- 
ing pictures are particularly 
interesting as exemplifying the 
way in which the relationships 
of bird-groups appear in the young. Formerly, 
plovers and herons used both to be classed 
together as wading birds, while gulls were 
ranked, as swimmers, in a different “order.” 
Anatomical research, however, showed that 
gulls and plovers agreed very closely in a 
great many points, while herons were very 
different from either. This is borne out by 
the character of the young birds. Young 
gulls and young plovers are hatched with a 
good covering of 
down, and 
run about  ac- 
tively like chicks 
and pick up their 
food, though in 
the case of gulls 
this is mostly 
brought to them 
by their parents. 
Young herons, 
on the other 
hand, are ag 
helpless as young 
pigeons, and clad 
in long scanty 
down, and they 
do not leave their 
nest until fledged, 
while they gape 
and cry for the 
food the parents 
drop into their 
beaks. As they 
fledge they do, 
indeed, move about to some extent, having, 
unlike the ground-building waders, a very 
strong grip in the feet, as the hind-toe is 
Some 
Nestlings. 
San 
large. This leads us to what seems at first 
rather an absurd idea—that the state of a 
bird’s young on hatching can be foretold 
by looking at the parents’ feet. But this 
can usually be done; a bird with helpless 
nestlings usually builds in a tree, and tree- 
perching birds mostly have a long back-toe, 
while ground-dwellers have a small one or 
none at all. 
Photograph by Lewis Medland, North Finchley. 
GREY-HEADED PORPHYRIO. 
Animal Life 
The young Ringed Plover (Aegialitis 
hiaticula) deserves notice for its remarkable 
likeness to a pebble, the little things when in 
danger having the instinct to squat and thus 
escape notice, being “not the only pebble 
on the beach” in many cases, though not 
in this particular picture. 
Wa" 
OnE of the Porphyrios, or Purple Moorhens 
(Porphyrio calvus), 1s here 
The Moorhen’s 
Exercise. 
shown in the act of stretch- 
ing its wings and exempli- 
fying a family custom thereby. 
as observant people have 
Most. birds, 
all noticed, stretch 
one wing only at 
a time, but all 
the Rail family, 
to which imoor- 
hens and porphy- 
rios belong, 
appear to stretch 
both at once. No 
doubt they wish 
they could stretch 
both legs at once, 
but as that 
would leave them 
without a leg to 
stand upon, they 
have to be com- 
monplace in this 
respect. The 
porphyrios, how- 
ever, are remark- 
able among rails 
in having a 
special habit of 
their own. ‘This 
is the trick of 
holding up food in one foot when eating, a 
habit common to several kinds of land birds, 
but, except for the porphyrios, unknown 
amongst water-fowl, not even the other rails 
sharing it with them. 
Wa 
THe curious Lyre-Bird (Menuwra superba) is 
“ ” 
a very “good footer,’ as a 
ihe faleoner would say; it employs 
Lyre-Bird. * } SEN 5 211 p10) 
its feet with great energy in 
scratching and turing over clods, as the 
