214 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



To come back to particulars, and the subject of this 

 chapter, there are very great differences in the temper 

 and behaviour of even the smallest birds of different 

 species in the presence of their human fellow-beings. 

 Some are strangely, unaccountably shy, and so suspi- 

 cious that they will not comport themselves as they do 

 immediately we are out of sight and mind. What a 

 contrast in this respect is there between such species as 

 the stonechat and goldcrest! One is always watching 

 us, always anxious, and refuses not only to go on with 

 his love-making or nest-building but even refuses to 

 sing if we are there while to the other our presence is 

 no more than that of a rock or tree. I was delighted 

 to find that the marsh warbler was more like the last 

 than the first, that he went on with his feeding, wooing, 

 nest-building, his feud with his rivals, or with the 

 neighbouring cock who from time to time ventured to 

 intrude on his little dominion, and above all with his 

 beautiful singing, just as though I had not been there 

 at all. My greatest pleasure was to mark a spot which 

 a pair of the birds had selected as their own and to go 

 and settle myself down in the very middle of the sacred 

 ground. There the cock would quickly come to me, 

 evidently recognizing in me a living creature of some 

 kind — a big animal with the faculty of locomotion, and 

 at first he would appear to be a little anxious about the 

 safety of his nest, but after a few minutes the trouble 

 would vanish from his little volatile mind and he would 

 be all freedom and gladness and melody, with transitory 

 fits of rage and other emotions, as before. On these 



