44 



THE OOLOGIST 



Tfie ©5*lo3ist 



FOURTH PUBLICATION YEAR. 



JANUARY, 1879. 



SUBJECTS OOLOGICALLY OONSIDEEED. 



ATTACHMENT DISPLAYED BY 

 BIRDS FOR THE IB EGGS. 



Under the first above title we propose 

 to publish a series of" essays, which shall 

 not treat so much of the eggs themselves, 

 as of" the habits of birds during the nesting 

 season, and of the more generally slighted 

 particulars closely connected with the dep- 

 osition of eggs. This series of articles, bas- 

 ed upon observations made at various times 

 during an extended experience, will be con- 

 tinued in the succeeding numbers of the 

 present volume. 



It is a well known fact to even the tyro 

 collector of any original observation, that 

 one class of birds will immediately leave the 

 vicinity forever, if they imagine their nest 

 to be discovered ; another will sometimes 

 desert the nest, and at others will not, if 

 the eggs are touched or misplaced ; still 

 another will not abandon the nest uidess 

 robbed, but will then certainly leave the vi- 

 cinity ; a fourth class will sit quietly by 

 and see the demolition of their homes with- 

 out a murmur, return, and begin anew 

 within a few hours ; and there is a very 

 small number who do not seem to regard 

 the robbing of their nest as of any conse- 

 quence : who will sometimes rebuild and 

 re-deposit to a surprising extent, at others 

 will abandon the labor of nesting- and breed- 



ing altogether for the season. This nuich 

 as a rule ; sometimes we are surprised at 

 the seemingly peculiar behavior of a bird, 

 — which is known to invariably desert the 

 nest if it has been discovered or an adjacent 

 twig moved — in returning immediately to 

 the nest and depositing a fresh set. We 

 may, in many cases, perhaps set this down 

 as the ambition of a young pair, who mav 

 not have become sufficiently matured in the 

 ways and customs of their ancestry, to dis- 

 criminate between the wilfull intentions of 

 avaritious man, and the to-be-expected dis- 

 pensations of Nature. But however this 

 may be, we should credit most birds with 

 the discrimination and qnick perception that 

 they deser\ e ; for if they know tlie position 

 of every twig, or every spear of grass im- 

 mediately about the nest, the very position 

 of the eggs themselves in the nest ; if they 

 know when a hand, however delicate, has 

 been placed upon the nest or ii'^^^a^ or when 

 an Q.]i'j^ is slightly turned, not to say hand- 

 Jed ; if they know when to suspect tlie prox- 

 imity of an enemy by means of some visi- 

 ble or invisible token, and to know, like 

 the fabled Lark who warned her Larklings 

 of danger only when it was imminent, what 

 to do and when to do it, surely, we are not 

 allowed to hastily say that birds have no 

 f"aculty of discrimination, and to affirm all 

 their actions instinctive. AVhen we see an 

 exhibition of" affection on the pai't of a pair 

 of birds for their eggs, we can call it noth- 

 ing but instinct; and when they select, af- 

 ter a careful search, a position most likely 

 j to off"er concealment, there is then an in- 

 stinctive display, approaching, in some 

 cases of adaptation, almost to reason, but 

 wJiich is still, from the nature of the case, 

 only a greater development of the instinct ; 

 but when a bird perceives the approach to 

 its home to bear the marks of touch, or the 

 little twig which jutted out of its side care- 

 lessly bent down or broken, does instinct 

 show it, or is it disclosed by a higher fac- 

 ulty? It is not denied but that the event 

 following such a discovery is instinctive, 

 for the preservation of safety is ever an in- 

 voluntary and unconscious effort. 



