428 



THE WONDER OF LIFE 



the sand-martin — an activity so alien to a bird's nature — 

 or the labour of several months that is spent in building, 

 pellet by pellet, the strong two-chambered mud-nest of 

 the S. American oven-bird — an architectural masterpiece 

 that may be as big as a child's head. 



The brooding must imply 

 a good deal of a quahty 

 alhed to patience, and in 

 many cases not a httle of 

 a quahty alhed to courage 

 — ^when an enemy comes 

 nosing all round about the 

 nest. The shy curlew has 

 been known to allow a 

 photographer to bring a 

 large camera within ten 

 feet of her nest without 

 betraying herself by the 

 shghtest movement. In 

 some cases, e.g. of great 

 heat, the brooding bird 

 appears to suffer consider- 

 ably, and perhaps this has 

 something to do with the 

 fact that birds almost always 

 nest in the coldest part of 

 theii migratory range. The 

 bird has to do all this, but the same may be said of much 

 of the parental care which all the world admires in the 

 human mother — it is instinctive. In Man there is 

 probably greater possibihty of disobedience and there is 

 a fuller awareness of what it all means. 



Fig. 67. — An Emperor Penguin, 

 Aptenodytes forsteri, with 

 the young one on her feet. 

 {After Wilson.) 



