In a lifelong observation of birds Cherry Kearton has noticed a dispensation of nature, whereby the bird hatched on the cliff edge learns to use its wings before it can walk, or it would assuredly topple over and break its neck. And he has had the proof that instinct can adapt itself to circumstance. *
Thirty years ago he stood up to his neck in water off an island in Scotland to photograph the last pair of ospreys to nest in the British Isles. The nest, built of sticks, was high off the ground, at the top of a dead tree. Here doubtless the young birds learnt first to use their wings. Some years later he was on Gardner's Island, seventy miles from New York, where ospreys were protected. There being no danger oi molestation, they had built their nest on the shore, though it was placed on the top of a huge construction of sticks and seaweed. He waited four days to get the photographs of young ospreys learning to fly (as shown in his film). But it is interesting to note that they used their legs first, and looked like three little figures dancing on top of the mound.