nest of sticks — placed on the boughs of a tree overhanging 

 the water. As soon as hatched he begins to climb about the 

 branches. Should he fall, by some mischance, into the water, 

 he promptly swims to the bank ; and by the aid of his long 

 first finger, and wing-claws, and his huge feet, soon cUmbs 

 back. But the most wonderful part of his story is yet to 

 come. 



So long as these youngsters can only scramble about they 

 are in constant jeopardy. A wing-surface at least big enough 

 to break the force of a fall is an urgent necessity. And so 

 the growth of the quiU-feathers is, so to speak, pushed forward 

 with aU possible speed. But if all the feathers grew at the 

 same rate, there would speedily come a time when the outer- 

 most feathers would make the claw at the end of the finger 

 useless, while the wing-surface, as a whole, would be insuffi- 

 cient. To obviate this difficulty, the development of the 

 outermost feathers is held in abeyance till the inner feathers 

 of the hand, and the outermost of the forearm, have grown big 

 enough to suffice to break the force of the fall. As soon as 

 this stage is arrived at, the outermost quills, whose growth 

 has been held in abeyance, rapidly develop ; the finger 

 decreases in length, and its claw disappears, while that of the 

 thumb soon follows suit. And thus it comes about that 

 the hand, in the nestUng, is relatively much longer than in 

 the adult. But in its mid-peridd it may be taken to represent 



119 



