



head, the nearest birds stop their feeding to watch, first in alarm, then to 

 swim closer to gain a better view of this strange thing. Soon most of the 

 ducks within a radius of a hundred yards have stopped feeding and are 

 swimming toward the shirt. Many of these, because of the undulating shore- 

 line, cannot see the shirt; they are following others that do see it. Such 

 "tolling," often accomplished with a dog, was once a common ruse of hunt- 

 ers to bring birds to the gun. By the same methods, antelope and sometimes 

 deer may be brought within gun range. How like our own human behaviorl 

 Surely each of us at some time has interrupted the business of the moment 

 to follow with quickened step a gathering crowd of people without know- 

 ing what draws them together. 



The same sympathetic behavior is to be seen in the selection of flight 

 routes. When I flush a band of Mallards on the lakeshore in August, they do 

 not depart individually to all points of the compass. After the initial surprise, 

 there is a regrouping, and most of the birds go away together in one direc- 

 tion to some other part of the lake or marsh. Since these August aggrega- 

 tions often take on new members daily, it may be assumed that some of 

 these are newcomers which are merely following the actions of experienced 

 birds. One duck goes where its companions go and in doing so it learns the 

 way. The same holds for young birds, such as the color-banded individuals 

 which first meet the world from the Station ponds. At first their outward 

 journeys take them no farther than the nearby slough or bay edge, and in 

 such flights they are in their own small company. It is not long, however, 

 before they return with unbanded, wild birds and then depart to distant 

 regions of the marsh with these, no doubt sharing experiences as well as 

 learning new places together. 



27 



