TWO COMMON BIRDS 



thing of all ! What a change there is the 

 moment one is out of sight; they no longer 

 crouch down with feathers drawn as tight as 

 possible, but sit up, look this way and that, 

 and try and preen their baby plumage. Long 

 before they leave the nest they begin to arrange 

 their rapidly growing feathers, running their 

 beaks down the shafts of the feathers and 

 thus keeping them in good order. In less than 

 three weeks from the time of hatching young 

 thrushes and blackbirds are ready to leave the 

 nest; they are then full fledged, except that 

 as yet their tails are short and stumpy. 

 Of course a long tail would be dreadfully in 

 the way when four or five big young birds are 

 packed into a shallow nest but three or four 

 inches across. If their tail feathers grew 

 before they left the nest they would certainly 

 get broken and spoilt, but Nature manages 

 better than that ; it is so arranged that their 

 tails remain short until the youngsters go out 

 into the world, and then grow rapidly, so that 

 by the time they are strong on the wing they 

 have a long tail to steer with. Tails are the 

 rudders with which birds steer, and also serve 

 as brakes, helping a bird to slow down when it 

 wants to alight suddenly. 



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