ANIMAL AVOCATIONS 
241 
however, is even a greater expert than the flea, 
for it is stated to be able to jump for a distance 
exceeding two hundred and fifty times its 
own length. 
The role of schoolmaster is played by many 
animals in the tuition of their young, the 
parents frequently employing very drastic 
methods when instructing their progeny. 
The razor-bill, for instance, teaches its chicks 
to dive and swim under-water by holding them 
by the scruff of their necks and ducking them; 
while wild ducks that nest in hollows of trees, 
or some other similar situation above ground, 
push their babies overboard when they consider 
them to be sufficiently developed to begin to 
look after themselves. 
Birds also have to be taught to fly just as 
human beings have to be taught to walk, the 
parents inducing their offspring to make use 
of their wings by first of all encouraging them 
to hop from one branch to another near by, 
and then gradually increasing the distance 
so that it is necessary for them to employ 
their wings during the passage. 
The hawks and eagles train their young to 
become expert at flying by dropping a dead 
pigeon or mouse from the nest and then urging 
them to follow and catch the food in mid¬ 
air ; while the swallows and fly-catchers follow 
Q 
