62 BOMBAY DUCKS 
the flycatchers did not molest them. Their instinct 
taught them that these mild birds would not harm their 
young. But all crows, kites, and hawks that ventured 
near were promptly mobbed. 
By the third day, the young birds had grown so big 
that there was no room for them to lie side by side in 
the nest. They lay jumbled together in a heap, of 
which the summit was higher than the walls of the 
nursery. By this time the tail and great wing-feathers 
had begun to appear; these, being in sheaths, made 
their possessors look like miniature porcupines. 
Their conduct in the nest was unlike that of any 
other young birds I have seen. As a rule, the moment 
a parent arrives, up into the air go all the gaping 
mouths, and there is quite a hullabaloo, each youngster 
being afraid he will be forgotten ! 
When the parent fantail came to the nest there was 
no clamour among the young birds, and only one of 
the three mouths opened. The decorous conduct of 
the young flycatchers is, probably, to be attributed to 
the action of natural selection ; for, living as they do in 
such an insecure nursery, the young birds would almost 
certainly fall out if they were of restless disposition, or 
if, when the parents came to the nest, they clamoured 
violently for food. 
From the third to the sixth day the young birds did 
not make any great visible progress. But from the 
sixth day onwards they developed apace. On the 
eighth day the white feathers on the eyebrow began to 
show themselves, and on the tenth the young birds 
looked quite presentable, The body was then covered 
