356 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



expect them to, — twelve days out of the egg and part of 

 one out of the nest ? 



It is a fascinating study to discover how the parent 

 birds tide their nestlings over this most difficult period of 

 their lives. Ask the pupils to watch a family of birds as 

 the young leave the nest and to describe what they see. 

 Olive Thorne Miller writes of seeing one parent bird 

 call her young one into a berry bush, and while the 

 youngster clamored for food and held its mouth wide 

 open, she quietly helped herself, as much as to say : 

 "This is the way we do it. See .? " But the young one 

 could not "see"; for the only thing it had ever done or 

 knew how to do was to hold its mouth open and flutter 

 its wings and beg ; and it must have thought the mother 

 cruel when she slipped away, leaving it alone to study the 

 lesson. One of the most interesting lessons I ever saw 

 was given by my big cock robin to his class of four young 

 ones. The task for that morning was evidently to learn 

 how to catch and eat earthworms. It was a drizzling 

 morning in June. All the youngsters were fully fledged, 

 and each appeared about as large as the daddy. They all 

 hopped along in a group, the parent a little in the lead. 

 Soon he pounced upon a large worm, and while he tugged 

 it out of its burrow, what did the young ones do but sit 

 back, hold their mouths open, flutter their wings, Snd beg.? 

 He threw the worm, squirming, among them. Not one 

 attempted to touch it. He picked it up again and, whack- 

 ing it on the ground, broke it into bits. Not one of his 

 class offered to help. They, every one, simply held their 

 mouths open and begged. He tossed the squirming bits 

 on the ground before them. Not one caught the idea. 



