DEVELOPEMENT. 
77 
yellow skin with a few thick, parti-coloured bristles glued 
on to it; the young of the Raven are not much hand¬ 
somer ; and newly-hatched Pigeons or Doves have hardly 
a trace of any covering at all, their shapeless bodies 
being but sparsely furnished with very thin down; in 
addition to this they are blind until they have attained 
the ninth day, and are extremely helpless. The young 
of most singing birds are also unable to see before nine 
days are over, and emerge from the shell almost totally 
naked. How trim and pretty, on the contrary, are all 
those which have to fight and struggle with the world 
immediately on their egress from the shell! The young 
Chicken, no matter of what breed, is certainly a 
charming little creature ! No less pretty are very young 
Goslings, Ducklings, the young of the Grebes, Divers, 
Gulls, and others. Nature is, however, ever true and just 
in all her dealings. The last-named are exactly those 
which take comparatively a longer time to develope into 
the full-grown bird than those raw, ungainly creatures 
which keep the nest so long. Every bird first acquires 
to perfection that talent which is most useful to it 
in its own peculiar sphere. Gallinaceous birds are 
runners, and most aquatic birds swimmers the first day 
of their lives; the members they most require for 
purposes of locomotion are perfect from the birth, 
whereas Flyers and Flying Divers are not able * to 
make good use of their peculiar means of locomotion 
until they have practised the same in a suitable manner ; 
and this can only take place when they have nearly 
reached maturity. For the rest, those birds which 
are apparently the least favoured in the commence” 
ment ultimately show the greatest activity and address 
in the movements most essential to them. It is the 
