CHAPTER V 



YOUNG BIRDS IN THE NURSERY 



It not seldom happens that what one is at first inclined 

 to regard as a piece of unnecessary detail in a picture 

 proves, on a little closer examination, to be a source of 

 inspiration givi^ to the whole canvas a new value. And 

 so many of the details herein set down will, I believe, 

 sooner or later help some one or other of my readers to 

 look with new eyes on the Mystery-play of Life. 



For completeness' sake, no doubt, in considering the 

 matter of the case of the young among birds, we should 

 begin with the building of the nursery, and the subsequent 

 labours of brooding the eggs. But we are more especially 

 concerned in these pages with the young which have 

 attained to being, than with those which are only about 

 to be, and hence these initial stages are only referred 

 to when they throw light on what otherwise would be 

 obscure in the later stages. 



All things considered, we may say that the parental 

 instincts in birds and beasts are more highly developed 

 than in more lowly creatures. That is to say they display 

 a greater solicitude for the well-being of their offspring 

 than, say, the reptiles, or the fishes, or animals yet lowier 

 in the scale. But summaries of this kind must be made 

 with reservations. The factors underlying this apparently 

 higher ethical plane are too subtle for our present discern- 



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