78 
BIRD-LIFE. 
same with all nestlings. That bird which emerges from 
the shell with scarce any covering at all flies sooner than 
an aquatic bird of the same size : the Woodpecker learns 
to climb much sooner than to walk. 
With one and all developement remains the same, how¬ 
ever different its appearance, and each and every mode 
reaches the required goal by the shortest route. The 
childhood, so to speak, of the bird is short in comparison 
with its whole life-time. It vanishes with the first inde¬ 
pendent flight, when the bird enters upon another phase 
of its existence. 
