INTRODUCTION. 2 



play. That imitativeness and the teaching of the mother 

 have a very large share in the whole concern is proved by 

 the fact that the whole recorded process, until the chick is 

 able to run and feed itself, takes only from five to eight 

 hours, if it remains with and under the care of the mother, 

 while it takes from eight to sixteen hours if the chick be 

 taken away from the mother immediately after hatching. 



The ducklings begin life just as do the 'chickens. They 

 easily fall over on their backs and cannot get up without 

 help. At first they neither eat nor peck, even if their beaks 

 are pushed into moistened meal. As to their immediate 

 running to the water, this is so little true that they far more 

 often anxiously try to get out of the water when they are 

 thrown into it. They do not drink of their own accord, but 

 learn to do so gradually if their beaks are held in the water. 

 When they are givten drink in a cup they take it very 

 clumsily, often touching the edge of the cup with their beak 

 instead of the water. When they have learned to drink, 

 they peck at a shining slate-shelf as if it were water. That 

 other birds also have to learn to drink is shown by an obser- 

 vation kindly sent to the author by Frau Huge of Schwerin. 

 Frau Ruge saw a hen-pigeon with three newly fledged 

 young take them to the edge of a water-tub and teach them 

 to drink with great trouble. The whole process, the inci- 

 dents of which are very well told by Frau Ruge, lasted a 

 full hour. 



Ducklings, like chickens, turn to the side where a noise is 

 made ; for example, to the side where anyone is speaking or 

 where other ducklings are chirping. They gradually learn 

 to walk by constant stumbles and falls, and also peck at 

 nails, bits of chalk, etc. They behave just in the same way 

 in the open. If they are brought to a pond they will go and 

 drink, but will not go in. If they are placed in deep water 

 they try to get out of it as quickly as possible, and therefore 

 make active movements with their legs, which necessarily 

 propel them, and, as an animal cannot sink, look like the 

 movements of swimming. Dr. Stiebeling of New York, 

 from whose admirable work " On the Instinct of Poultry 

 and Ducks" (New York, 1872,) we have borrowed the 

 above observations, noticed this in birds of one or two days 

 old, and even in those of eight days of age when they had 

 not left the coop, and, indeed, especially in these. Only 



