38 BIRDS AND MAN 



Birds are able sometimes to discriminate between 

 protectors and persecutors, but seldom very well I 

 should imagine ; they do not view the face only, 

 but the whole form, and our frequent change of 

 dress must make it difficult for them to distinguish 

 the individuals they know and trust from strangers. 

 Even a dog is occasionally at fault when his master, 

 last seen in black and grey suit, reappears in straw 

 hat and flannels. 



Nevertheless, if birds once come to know those 

 who habitually protect them and form a trustful 

 habit, this will not be abandoned on account of a 

 little rough treatment on occasions. A lady at 

 Worthing told me of her blackbirds breeding in 

 her garden that they refused to be kept from the 

 strawberries when she netted the ripening fruit. 

 One or more of the birds would always manage to 

 get under the net; and when she would capture 

 the robber and carry him, screaming, struggling and 

 pecking at her fingers, to the end of the garden and 

 release him, he would immediately follow her back 

 to the bed and set himself to get at the fruit again. 



In a bird's relations with other mammals there 

 is no room for doubt or confusion ; each consistently 

 acts after its kind ; once hostile, always hostile ; 

 and if once seen to be harmless, then to be trusted 



