Close encounter of the Bird Kind.

Fintan's trip to the Zoo with Tiarnan had, as usual, its moments of surprise.

As we wandered about the Zoo, we encountered, a peacock running freely about. It was a male with its tail feathers hidden from display. It approached Fintan rather closely and he must have felt threatened by this, given their relative sizes (the peacock was quite big from Fintan's perspective). So, as the peacock neared, Fintan raised a short stick he happened to have in his hands, clearly intending to throw it at the bird to scare him off.

"Don't do that Fintan!" I ordered, quickly.

He dropped his raised arm, then said: "Why? Is it because it has dinosaur feet?"

I looked down at the bird's feet and, sure enough, the feet looked like those typically depicted for dinosaurs. Fintan, three, had spotted the commonality between birds and dinosaurs by observation. Presumably, he was saying that if it had dinosaur feet, perhaps it was like dinosaurs in other ways too - and so might prove to be unexpectedly dangerous, if he attacked it.

With a heightened respect, he let his arm fall and just watched the bird carefully. It didn't approach any nearer and, perhaps sensing that all was not well with Fintan's response, it backed off and away.

Fintan was very content in the Zoo. His liking for animals is most clear and there, he seems to be most happy.

(If you would like to read more of Fintan, three, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and six months, or Tiarnan, sixteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)