248 JUNGLE FOLK 



gained strength and confidence, however, its native 

 notes became very apparent, and they continued to 

 improve in tone till the termination of July, when it 

 commenced moulting. ... By the beginning of 

 October ... it began to execute its song in a manner 

 calculated to remove every doubt as to its being that 

 of the redbreast, had any such previously existed." 

 Mr. Long lays great stress on the manner in which 

 parents inculcate into their young fear of enemies. 

 Fear, he asserts, is not instinctive ; young creatures, 

 if found before they have been taught to fear, are not 

 alarmed at the sight of man. I admit that ver}^ young 

 creatures are not afraid of foes, and that, later, they 

 do display fear, but I assert that this change is not 

 the result of teaching, that it is the mere development 

 of an inborn instinct which does not show itself until 

 the young are some days old, because there is no neces- 

 sity for it in the earliest stages of the existence of a 

 young bird. 



Some months ago one of my chaprassis brought me 

 a couple of baby red-vented bulbuls which had fallen 

 out of a nest. They were unable to feed themselves, 

 and were probably less than a week old. One met 

 with an early death, and the survivor was kept in a 

 cage. One day, while I was writing in my study, this 

 young bulbul began scolding in a way that all bulbuls 

 do when alarmed. On looking round, I discovered that 

 a chaprassi had silently entered the room with a shikra 

 on his wrist. The shikra is a kind of sparrow-hawk, 

 common in India. That particular individual was 

 being trained to fly at quail. It had never before 



