BIKDS— SPECIAL HABITS. 
289 
the observation on the authority of his brother as eye- 
witness. The fowl had found good feeding-ground on 
the further side of a stream four metres wide. She 
adopted the habit of flying across with her chickens 
upon her back, taking one chicken on each journey. 
She thus transferred the whole of her brood every morn- 
ing, and brought them back in a similar way to their 
nest every evening. The habit of carrying young 
in this way is not natural to Gallinaceae, and there- 
fore this particular instance of its display can only be 
set down as an intelligent adjustment by a particular 
bird. 
Similarly, a correspondent (Mr. J. Stent) informs me 
of a case in which a pair of blackbirds, after having 
been disturbed by his gardener looking into their nest 
at their young, removed the iatter to a distance of 
twenty yards, and deposited them in a more concealed 
place. Partridges are well known to do this, and simi- 
larly, according to Audubon, the goatsucker, when its 
nest is disturbed, removes its eggs to another place, 
the male and female both transporting eggs in their 
beaks . 1 
Now, it is easy to see that if any particular bird 
is intelligent enough, as in the cases quoted, to per- 
form this adjust! ve action of conveying young — whether 
to feeding-grounds, as in the case of the hen, or 
from sources of danger, as in the case of partridges, 
blackbirds, and goatsuckers — inheritance and natural 
selection might develop the originally intelligent ad- 
justment into an instinct common to the species. 
And it happens that this has actually occurred in at 
least two species of birds — namely, the woodcock and 
wild duck, both of which have been repeatedly observed 
to fly with their young to and from their feeding- 
ground. 
Couch gives some facts of interest relating to the mode 
of escape practised by the water-rail, swan, and some other 
aquatic birds. This consists in sinking under water, with 
1 Orn. Blog., i., p. 2 '76. 
