PIED STILT 3l 
that her hesitation to withdraw the chicks was 
less prolonged. The weather had changed; a 
chill sou’wester was blowing out of a grey sky. 
Her eggs, the Stilt knew, could not, as in the 
morning, for any length of time safely remain 
uncovered. Once more it was wonderful to see 
the enticement used to withdraw the chicks, the 
agony of supplication put into her attitudes. 
Crouching, courtesying close to them, with her 
long legs half folded up, she made of herself a 
parallel plane to the earth, her body close to the 
ground inviting to cover, her wings and _ tail 
uplifted and outstretched. Thus were the chicks 
again coaxed from the neighbourhood of the 
camera and screen. Then, as before, the male 
took them into his care, whilst the hen, after 
due inspection and rearrangement of her straw, 
settled happily on her eggs. 
Watching these Stilt nestlings and their parents, 
I got a glimpse of that austere affection with which 
chicks are reared, and which forces the little 
ones, however frail and however young, to work 
out their own salvation. To be severely stern is 
but to be wisely kind. From the earliest dawn of 
life, direct assistance, direct interference, would 
prove at best but a procrastination of catastrophe. 
Mankind, especially the wealthier section of man- 
kind, may be able to play with the question of 
education ; the schools of the brutes must really 
