32 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



later and settle down once more in the same green 

 place. 



To the naturalist, to any bird-lover in fact, a large 

 gathering of big birds is, of all sights, the most ex- 

 hilarating, especially in this country where the big birds 

 have been diligently weeded out until few are left. At 

 Wells I had two matters in my mind to enhance the 

 pleasure experienced. One was in the thought of the 

 birds' striking intelligence, as shown by their changed 

 demeanour during their daily visits to that camping- 

 spot on the marsh where they relax their extreme wild- 

 ness. It is often borne in on me in observing birds that 

 the position of a species or family in the scale of nature 

 from the point of view of the anatomist and evolu- 

 tionist is not a criterion of its Intelligence. Thus the 

 Anatidae, or ducks, which in any natural classification 

 would be placed far below the crows and parrots, are 

 mentally equal to the highest of the bird order. It 

 was purely the Intelligence of these geese which made 

 it possible for me to observe them so nearly at that spot, 

 which was no sand-bar with the protecting sea all around 

 it, but a small space in the very midst of the enemies' 

 country. 



It gave me even a higher pleasure to think that there 

 are still a few great landowners in England, like the 

 present and the late Lord Leicester, who do not look 

 on our noble bird life as something to be destroyed for 

 sport, or In the interests of sport, until it has been 

 wiped out of existence. It is not only the geese which 

 receive protection here. Ducks in thousands are accus- 



