AWARENESS OF TIME AND SPACE 



band of Canada Geese was occupied in the same way. Here were two 

 groups of birds doing the same thing at the same time. They were in the 

 flightless period of the summer molt so that there could have been no inter- 

 change from one group to the other. The flocks were a quarter of a mile 

 apart, with trees and buildings intervening ; hence one band could not have 

 seen the other's actions, nor did sound of their activity carry so far. I suspect 

 that the channel geese and those at the pond fed at about the same time in 

 the morning, and thus they began their post-breakfast bath and frolic at 

 about the same moment. 



I have never seen adult waterfowl driven to the point of exhaustion in 

 their local movements, but when new arrivals reach the marsh on migration, 

 their behavior is that of tired birds. Trautman observed (1940:90) that 

 "the newly arrived birds seemed very tired, for upon alighting most of them 

 tucked their bills under the feathers of their back or wings and apparently 

 went to sleep." Of migrant Mallards arriving in Arkansas, Queeny says 

 (1947:37), "They are exhausted. Some have lost as much as half a pound 

 during their flight. If they become aware of an interloper, they do not fly 

 away . . ." 



In downy young I have watched what amounts to a relation between 

 fatigue and the passage of time. Once I followed a brood of Redheads along 

 a road at the marsh edge. They traveled ahead of me undisturbed as I ob- 

 served at a distance with field glasses. From their location I judged that 

 they had walked about two miles when I first encountered them. They 

 toddled along behind their mother, then squatted down for a rest of three 

 or four minutes while she waited patiently. Soon they went on again, only 

 to stop once more to rest. Their stops were made every forty or fifty yards 

 and apparently were timed according to their requirement for rest. 



Regularity of activity has been noted in other birds. Pettingill (1936) 

 has discussed the relation between the sun and the beginning of the morn- 

 ing and evening "peenting" in the Woodcock. This begins at about the same 

 moment each twilight, but as the sun sets later each day, there is a similar 

 delay in the beginning of the evening "song." Nice (1943:108), working 

 with songbirds, observed that "each species has its own 'Waking-Light' " 

 and that in some kinds the first song, like the feeding flight of the Canada 

 Goose, does not begin until long after the first glow of dawn. Palmgren 

 (1949), who has given an excellent review of the experimental work on 

 the diurnal rhythm in birds, points out that in the European Robin 'light 

 is not the only factor. If the natural light is shut off and the cages lighted 



79 



