J^ocomotion in Young Birds. 



contrast with the extreme shyness of such birds in their 

 natural haunts. In Professor Newton's "Dictionary of 

 Birds " we are told * that, " though often frequenting the 

 neighbourhood of men, the moorhen seems unable to over- 

 come the inherent stealthy habits of the Eallidffi, and 

 hastens to hide itself on the least alarm ; but under excep- 

 tional circumstances it may be induced to feed, yet always 

 suspiciously, with tame ducks and poultry." My little 

 friend Tinker, as we called him, had, however, over- 

 come all constitutional shyness, and was as tame as the 

 tamest of barn-door chicks. 



Analogous instances of what, from the description 

 given, would seem to be truly instinctive activities are 

 those of the dipper and of the hoactzin. The way in 

 which the dipper, or water-ousel, dives and runs along the 

 bottom of a stream, aided by his wings, but clutching with 

 its claws the stones at the bottom, has often been de- 

 scribed. I have, however, never seen an old bird attempt 

 to escape in this way ; when disturbed, he flies off. The 

 Duke of Argyll describes a case from his own observation 

 of a young dipper, on being disturbed, dropping from the 

 nest, and, when it reached a pool, diving instinctively. 

 It may be well to give in full the passage in which his 

 Grace describes the facts.f " A pair of dippers built their 

 nest last year at Inverary, in a hole in the wall of a small 

 tunnel constructed to carry the rivulet under the walls of 

 a pleasure-ground. The season was one of great drought, 

 and the rivulet, during the whole time of incubation and of 

 the growth of the young in the nest, was nearly entirely 

 dry. One of the nestlings, when almost fully fledged, was 

 taken out by the hand for examination, an operation which 



* See p. 590. 



t Contemporary Eeview, July, 1875, "On Animal Instinct," vol. xxvi. 

 p. 352. 



