YOUNG BIRDS IN THE NURSERY 57 



increasing the risks to which the young, the source of 

 future famiHes, are exposed. But this, as we shall see, 

 is only one of the disadvantages of active young. 



All the same, when neither polygamy nor polyandry 

 obtains — a state of society impossible when the young 

 demand unlimited care, save only when parasitism prevails, 

 as among the cuckoos — the parents of precocious birds 

 are no whit behind species of more restricted hberty in 

 their care for the young. Even where the duties of 

 incubation fall entirely on the female, the male comes 

 forward to bear his share as soon as hatching has taken 

 place. Discovering choice morsels of food, he calls his 

 mate and her chicks to the feast, taking nothing for 

 himself, and when their safety is threatened by birds 

 or beasts of prey, and even by man himself, he displays 

 not seldom a high degree of courage. 



In their defence, in the case of the ptarmigan, for 

 example, both parents display extreme anxiety. The 

 female, if flushed with her young and they do not follow 

 at once — for they rapidly develop considerable powers 

 of flight — flies straight away for about two hundred yards, 

 then suddenly she shoots up into the air some twenty or 

 thirty feet, at the same time calling loudly " Ack, ack, 

 ack" apparently to distract the attention of the disturber 

 of the peace, a stratagem described by Mr. J. G. MiUais. 

 Meanwhile the cock flies round in wide circles, finally 

 alighting on the top of some prominent projecting rock, 

 where he may further distract attention. Even the 

 hill-fox is said to be attacked if the young are endangered, 

 and doubtless many of the bolder spirits pay the penalty 

 of their daring with their lives. Man himself will be 

 buffeted should he approach too near the young before 

 they are capable of flight. 



