JUNE 121 



The first or nestling plumage of young birds is of 

 special interest, as in many cases it very soon under- 

 goes modification. It is evident that fledglings in 

 general resemble the female bird, but in young males, 

 as of the chaffinch and bullfinch, the distinguishing 

 features of the plumage of the cock bird soon become 

 apparent. The nestling dress is perhaps a reminiscence 

 of ancestral plumage before specific distinctions had 

 become so marked as at present, e.g., the spotted breasts 

 of young blackbirds indicate a near relationship to 

 the thrush, and if the spotted dress of young robins 

 leads us to include the redbreast in the same family, 

 we shall not be far astray. 



But it is not only the small perching birds which 

 the long June days find busy with nursery duties. 

 Upon her platform of sticks the Sparrow-hawk is 

 dividing a neatly-plucked blackbird amongst her 

 young, whose dress of spotless down lends them an 

 air of innocence but little in keeping with their true 

 character. The young Kestrels in the hole in the old 

 quarry, when inspected, shrink as far back as they 

 can, then stand and face us with defiant eyes and 

 wide-open menacing beaks, their claws clutching 

 nervously. 



About the middle of the month the Partridge leads 

 her young, dainty as bantam chicks, to the old weedy 

 pasture, unmown for years, there to scratch amongst 

 the anthills to lay bare the succulent "eggs" of which 



