THE OOLOGIST 



61 



A CRACKLE'S LESSON. 



An amusing instance illustrating the 

 seeming analogy between the motives 

 and incidents in the lives of humans 

 and birds so often observed by us. 

 came to my notice one summer day 

 some years ago. 



We often see actions of birds that 

 seem to us to show clearly their reas- 

 oning or lack of reasoning so very like 

 that observed in humans that we won- 

 der if the processes of evolution are 

 not much more rapid than generally 

 thought, and if we are not much more 

 closely related to our bird and "beast" 

 neighbors in point of time than we 

 think, so that we have not yet lost 

 the habits and processes of reasoning 

 that actuate the lower(?) animals. 



It may be that our neighbors imi- 

 tate our habits from association with 

 us; or else as is more probable, we 

 read into the instinctive acts of birds 

 and mammals the same actuating mo- 

 tives that we would experience and 

 credit them with the same labored 

 and time-consuming process of reason- 

 ing that we would employ in similar 

 case, whereas their actions are the 

 result of instinct and impulse and per- 

 formed on the spur of the moment, 

 without any conscious reasoning at all. 



But, be that as it may, it is enter- 

 taining to see the similarity in the.r 

 actions to ours, and in this particular 

 case I speak of, the outcome so well 

 demonstrated and pointed the moral 

 of one of our oft-told parables that I 

 thought it worth recounting. 



A Flicker family had their home in 

 a Cottonwood stub, standing in our 

 yard. The entrance was about fifteen 

 feet from the ground. 



I had been keeping pretty close 

 track of their affairs, so one day 

 when I judged the eggs must 1)(" 

 hatched, I rapped sharply on the stul), 

 as a preliminary to ascending to the 



nest, to cause the mother to fly off. 



Mother Flicker very promptly left 

 her newly hatched babies and taking 

 her station on a branch near her door 

 began to abuse me in Flicker language, 

 and intermittently to call for her mate. 



A male Bronze Grackle, whose fam- 

 ily was in a tree some distance away, 

 and who was engaged in a hunt for 

 food for his incubating mate, heard 

 the Flicker's outcry, and recognizing 

 her evident distress, being moved to 

 sympathy because he had family 

 cares, too, stopped, and perching be- 

 side the Flicker lady joined with her 

 in soft "clucks" of sympathy for her 

 and harsh "churrs" of abuse for me. 



This went on for several minutes, 

 when, the head of the Flicker family, 

 hastening to his distressed mate's aid,, 

 arrived on the scene. A quick survey 

 of the situation convinced him tha'i, 

 since 1 was a familiar object in that 

 vicinity and apparently harmless, the 

 Grackle must be the offender, and so 

 v/ith no delay he went into action. 

 After chasing the misguided sympa- 

 thizer for a quarter of a mile or so, 

 he returned, and finding his mate at 

 home again, the Flicker celebrated his 

 victory with loud chirps, to which his 

 mate responded with soft checkles of 

 approval, never explaining to her mate 

 his mistake, but applauding his valor 

 and promptness in responding to her 

 appeals. 



To me this pointed moral to the old 

 saw so often referred to in our comic 

 papers about the inadvisibility of in- 

 terfering in a "private fight." 



Dr. L. .r. Evans, 

 704 First St., Ft. Myers, Fla. 



DON'T DO IT. 



I was much amused in reading Colo- 

 rado Pedioecetes' Altona Farm article 

 in the December Oologist. He cer- 

 tainly uncovered some "halo" spots in 

 the present-day "lime-light" ornitho- 

 logical "science." 



