70 JUNGLE FOLK 



to make certain that the mother and father could see 

 what I was doing, for I was anxious to find out how 

 far their laudable attempts at the concealment of the 

 nest from me were due to the exercise of intelHgence. 

 Having replaced the baby bird in the nest, I returned 

 to the place where I had waited for the parents to 

 direct me to their nursery, and watched their future 

 actions. If they had been acting intelligently, they 

 would reason thus, " The great ogre has found our 

 nest and seen our little ones. If he wants them we 

 are powerless to prevent him taking them. The 

 game of keeping their whereabouts hidden from him 

 is up. There is nothing left for us to do but to continue 

 to feed our chicks in the ordinary way without further 

 attempt at concealment." If, however, they were 

 acting blindly, merely obeying the promptings of the 

 instinct which teaches them not to feed their young 

 ones in the presence of danger, they would be as 

 unwilling now to visit the nest as they were after they 

 first caught sight of me. They pursued the latter 

 course, thus demonstrating that this seemingly most 

 intelligent behaviour is prompted by instinct. 



It is a well-known fact that some birds, such as the 

 partridge, whose young are able to run about when 

 first hatched, behave in a very clever manner in 

 presence of danger. The mother bird acts as though 

 her wing was broken, and flutters away from the in- 

 truder with what appears to be a great and painful 

 effort. By this means she draws the attention of the 

 enemy to herself ; meanwhile her chicks are able to 

 hide themselves in whatever cover happens to be con- 



