88 THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



its legs with the help of its pointed beak, shrugging up 

 the loose skin of the abdomen the while to cover it. . . . 

 The chicks are fully alive to the inconvenience of being 

 fought for by so many clumsy nurses, and I have seen 

 them not only make the best use of their legs in avoiding 

 so much attention, but remain to starve and freeze in 

 preference to being nursed. Undoubtedly, I think that of 

 the 77 per cent, that die before they shed their down, quite 

 half are killed by kindness. . . ." 



A death-rate of 77 per cent, among the downy young 

 alone is appallingly high : but it is a moot point whether 

 this is not nearly approached in the case of birds which 

 dwell within our own borders, and these are the members 

 of the Auk tribe — the guillemot, razorbill, little auk, and 

 puffin. These, it must be remembered, are enticed down 

 from the cliffs to the sea before they are fully fledged, and 

 from thence onwards tiU the following spring they touch 

 no land day nor night. Through fair weather and foul 

 at sea, far from land, they must remain, be the storms of 

 winter never so severe. Such as fall victims, and the 

 number must be great, rarely leave any record of their 

 dying : they are devoured where they die by the guUs 

 above or the fishes below them. After storms of exceptional 

 severity, it is true, the coast may be strewn for miles 

 with the dead bodies, not only of the immature but also of 

 adults. The survivors, which have weathered the same 

 storm, are survivors just because they were the " fittest," 

 in powers of endurance, and in their ability to make the 

 best of every opportunity, however slight, to lessen the 

 strain of resisting the bufletings to which perhaps for 

 days they are continually subjected. 



The intensity of this struggle has been registered, so 

 to speak, in a most convincing manner, in the skeleton, 



