More Tales of the Birds. Fowler William Warde

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ done their work, nor the young ones have learnt the art of living. It was placed among the bracken under an old thorn-bush, on the brink of a miniature little precipice some four feet high, the work of some great flood that had eaten out the shaly soil.

      The Sandpipers felt no fear, for there was no village at hand, and hardly a boy to hunt for nests: the fishermen kept to the bank of the river or waded in it, and only glanced for a moment in admiration at the graceful figure of the male bird, as he stood bowing on a stone in mid-stream, gently moving body and tail up and down in rhythmical greeting to the water that swirled around him, and piping his musical message to the wife sitting on her eggs near at hand.

      One day when he was thus occupied, before making a fresh search for food for her, an answering pipe from the nest called him to her side. He guessed what it was, for hatching time was close at hand. When he reached the nest, he found that inside the first egg that had been laid a tiny echo of his own clear pipe was to be heard. Whether you or I could have heard it I cannot say; but to the keen ears of the parents it was audible enough, and made their hearts glow with the most delightful visions of the future. And this hidden chick was wonderfully lively and talkative, more so than any chick of theirs had been before he came out into the world. It was quite unusual for a Sandpiper, and both the parents looked a little serious. Nor was their anxiety allayed when the egg-shell broke, and a little black eye peered out full of life and mischief.

      Then out came a head and neck, and then a sticky morsel of a mottled brown body, which almost at once got its legs out of the shell, and began to struggle out of the nest. Was ever such a thing known before? The old birds knew not whether to laugh or cry, but they hustled him back into the nest in double quick time, and made him lie down till the sun and air should have dried him up a little. Hard work the mother had of it for the next day or two to keep that little adventurer under her wing while the other eggs were being hatched. When he was hungry he would lie quiet under her wing; but no sooner had his father come with food for him than he would utter his little pipe and struggle up for another peep into the wide world. Terrible stories his mother told him of infant Sandpipers who had come to untimely ends from disobeying their parents.

      One, she told him, had made off by himself one day while his mother was attending to his brothers and sisters, and before he had gone many yards along the pleasant green sward, a long red creature with horrible teeth and a tuft to his tail, had come creeping, creeping, through the grass, and suddenly jumped upon him. His mother heard his cries, and flew piping loudly to the spot; but it was too late, and she had to watch the cruel stoat bite off his head and suck his blood. Another made off towards the water and was crushed under foot by an angler who was backing from the river to land a fish, and never even knew what he had done. Another fell into a deep hole at nightfall and could not get out again, and was found starved and dead when morning came.

      After each of these stories the little bird shuddered and crouched under his mother’s wing again: but the mastering desire to see the world always came back upon him, and great was the relief of the parents when the other eggs were hatched and education could begin. Then the nest was soon abandoned, and the little creatures trotted about with their mother; for they are not like the ugly nestlings that lie helpless and featherless in their nests for days and days, as human babies lie in their cradles for months. Life, and manners, and strength, and beauty, come almost at once on the young Sandpipers, as on the young pheasants and partridges and chickens. And their education is very easy, for they seem to know a good deal already about the things of the world into which they have only just begun to peep.

      So one lovely day in June the whole family set out for the bank of the river, the young ones eager to learn, and the old ones only too anxious to teach. For what they had to learn was not merely how to find their food – that they would soon enough discover for themselves – but what to do in case of danger; and as they tripped along, the mother in her delicate grey dress, white below with darker throat and breast, and the young ones in mottled grey and brown, so that you could hardly tell them among the pebbles and their shadows, she gave them their first lesson, while the father flew down the river and back again to exercise his wings and to look for food.

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

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

СКАЧАТЬ