26 INTRODUCTION. 



gradually do the little creatures accustom themselves to 

 losing the solid ground from under their feet. If the duck- 

 lings be hatched under a hen they take much longer before 

 they become used to the water than if hatched under a duck, 

 for the latter, like all water-birds, takes her young on her 

 back, and, swimming out, she shakes them off into the water. 

 When the ducklings reach dry land again, they shake them- 

 selves and try to clean the water off. This, as well as the 

 fact that if they are given milk instead of water exactly the 

 same incidents are observed, proves that we ought not to 

 speak of ducks having an instinctive love of the water, even 

 though there can be nothing surprising in their having an 

 inclination to an element in which their parents and ances- 

 tors have been at home from time immemorial. 



This thoroughly coincides with the facts kindly communi- 

 cated to the author by Herr Julius Tape of Szegzard, (Hun- 

 gary) who lived long by the Danube, and had over and 

 over again seen that the goslings feared the water, until 

 they had learned to swim, and were, it might be said, 

 cheated into it by the parents. When the young are old 

 enough to be taken into the water, the old ones bring them to 

 the bank. The gander goes in front, cackling continually, 

 while the hen pushes from behind, cackling in the same way. 

 After a very short trial-swim the goslings are brought back 

 to the bank, and these trials are repeated from day to day 

 at increasing length, until the young go into the water of 

 their own accord. This gentleman has also observed that 

 when geese wanted to swim over from the opposite bank, 

 they never started from a point exactly opposite, but took to 

 the water much higher up the stream ; and they knew so 

 well how to calculate that when the wind did not interfere 

 with them they landed exactly opposite their owner's house. 

 If by chance a steamer was in the neighborhood, they 

 quietly waited until it had passed. 



We cannot, then, talk about an innate love of water with 

 reference to these animals either. This may be said rather 

 of young turtles, of which it is told, and apparently truly, 

 that as soon as they escape from the eggs hatched in the 

 sand of the sea-shore, they run to the sea, and repeat this 

 even if they are forcibly turned back, or driven in an oppo- 

 site direction. But here it is clearly nothing more than the 

 scent of the sea which causes this action, and it is well 



