-ii6 THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



down-like feathers to absolute nakedness. Further, even 

 in the very nature of this down there are very striking 

 differences, the deep significance of which, until recently, 

 has been quite overlooked. In the precocious types the 

 downy covering has at least completed one phase of its 

 growth at hatching time. Among the helpless types 

 this is but rarely the case. 



Young penguins, hawks and owls, for example, at 

 hatching are but scantily clad ; but in a short space an 

 abundant crop of down makes its appearance. The 

 young pelican and cormorant are ushered naked into the 

 world, and never at any time develop a very thick covering. 

 The young gannet, on the other hand, a very near relation 

 of the pelican and cormorant, as it leaves the egg, is covered 

 with a short, velvet-pile-like mantle of down, but speedily 

 this gives place to an almost wooUy, downy growth of 

 considerable length. The young of the closely-related 

 storks and herons present a striking contrast in the matter 

 of their mantles. In the case of the stork the body is 

 clad in a vestment of white down, short and woolly ; 

 while in the heron it is of a long, straggling, filamentous 

 or hair-like character, and by no stretch of imagination 

 can it be called a covering. So too with the pigeons : 

 the down feathers have so degenerated in character that 

 they give the rather livid and ugly-looking body the 

 appearance of being invested with a very straggling crop 

 of bristles. 



Birds like kingfishers, hornbills, swifts and humming- 

 birds never develop nestling down, so that the growing 

 feathers give the birds somewhat the appearance of 

 hedgehogs, at any rate until the tips of the feathers begin 

 to burst through their pointed sheaths. The young of 

 many of the Passeres are commonly, one might almost 



