CHAPTER IX 
YOUTH, MATURITY, AND AGE 
THE lives of most young birds are fairly familiar to 
most of us. Young chickens, not long after they are 
hatched, run after their mother, picking up what she 
tells them to eat, and listening to her warning cry. 
Young ducks soon take to the water, and the method 
of their bringing-up may be easily seen. Young 
Blackbirds stay long in the nest and wait open-mouthed 
tobe fed. All this is an old story. There is one bird, 
the Hoatzin, the bird of British Guiana already men- 
tioned, whose infant life and infant powers it is difficult 
to describe without exciting incredulity in the mind of 
the reader. But the interest does not end with the 
strangeness of the bird and its ways. As we watch 
him we may feel sure that we are learning much 
of the build and of the habits of many ancient birds 
that have made room for more highly developed 
types. 
The Hoatzin is more nearly related to the Fowls 
than to any other birds. But he diverges from them 
so far that he is regarded as the sole representative of 
