Locomotion in Young Birds. 67 



to save it from perishing, I soon saw that my assistance 

 ■was not required, for immediately on dropping into the 

 water it put out its neck, and with the body nearly sub- 

 merged, like a wounded duck trying to escape observation, 

 it swam rapidly to a small mound, and, escaping from the 

 water, concealed itself in the grass, lying close and per- 

 fectly motionless like a young plover." With regard to 

 the submersion of the body, we must remember that the 

 down of a freshly hatched bird would be still wet. I have 

 again and again noticed that young moorhen chicks, even 

 when the down has dried, if they are dropped into the 

 water, are (and in this they differ from ducks) completely 

 wetted, and swim with but little of the back above the 

 surface. This would, I should suppose, be the case with 

 the just-hatched jacana when it fell from Mr. Hudson's 

 hand into the water. 



Ducks not only swim, but dive very shortly after birth. 

 A wild duck, full of life and spirits, placed in my bath 

 when not six days old, at once dipped his head, and 

 then dived, swimming some distance along the bottom, 

 apparently from sheer exuberance of vital power. Ducks 

 that build in trees take their little ones to the water, 

 carrying them in some cases in the bill. Acerbi, quoted 

 by Yarrell,* says of the goosander, " As soon as the eggs 

 are hatched, the mother takes her chicks gently in her bill, 

 carries and lays them down at the foot of the tree, when 

 she teaches them the way to the river, in which they 

 instantly swim with astonishing facility." The hooded 

 merganser, the eider-duck, the wood-duck, and other 

 members of this group of birds, are said to carry their 

 young in this way. Yarrell says t the same of the 

 sheldrake. But Sir E. Payne Gallwey, quoted by Mr. H. 



* Yarrell, " British Birds," vol. iii. p. 398. 

 t Oy. cit., vol. iii. p. 237. 



