82 THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



Whether the nestlings of any sea-birds need to drink 

 during the earlier, helpless stages of their existence is 

 not known ; but it is certain that from the fledgeling stage 

 onwards the young, and we must suppose the adults, of 

 the Auk tribe drink copiously, and this too of the sea- 

 water. Captive birds which have no access to salt water, 

 at any rate when very young, soon die. But they may 

 be reared if given enough salt water in which to swim, 

 and of which they may drink at need. 



Every now and then we get a momentary indication 

 that the death-rate among nestlings must represent an 

 appalling total, and herein we get an aspect of bird-life 

 which, so far, has been entirely neglected. Here and 

 there, however, facts have been put on record which 

 furnish a grim picture of what Darwin called the struggle 

 for existence. So far they seem to show that death by 

 violence accounts for more victims than disease, to which 

 a fairly high power of resistance seems to have been 

 established. Internal parasites, at any rate, can be 

 tolerated to a quite surprising extent. 



I remember not long since endeavouring to save a half- 

 fledged blackbird from the clutches of a dog. I was too 

 late, and the victim lay an instant later before me, dis- 

 embowelled. From a coil of broken intestine there was 

 plainly visible the jointed segments of the white and 

 fearsome tapeworm, and an examination revealed two 

 or three of these almost full grown, beside other parasites : 

 and this before the bird had completed its first three 

 weeks of existence ! 



Among species which resort to breed in large colonies 

 this mortality is painfully obvious, but there can be no 

 doubt that here the death-rate rises more or less in 



