THE SWALLOW-PLOVER 207 



and striking strange attitudes. Some were lying on 

 the sand as though they had been wounded and fallen 

 to the ground ; others were floundering on the ground 

 as if in pain ; some were fluttering along with one 

 wing stretched out hmply, looking as though it were 

 broken ; while others appeared to have both wings 

 injured. I did not count the birds, but at least twenty 

 of them were seemingly injured. I had often seen 

 one bird or a pair behave thus, but never a whole 

 flock. 



All the plover family have this injury-feigning 

 instinct, but in none is it so well developed as in the 

 pratincoles. 



'* The strange antics," writes Hume, " played by 

 these little birds, at least those of them that had 

 young or hard-set eggs, whenever we approached 

 their treasures were very remarkable ; flying past 

 one, they would come fluttering down on to the sand 

 a few paces in front of one, and there gasp and flutter 

 as if mortally wounded, hobbling on with draggled 

 wings and limping legs as one approached them, and 

 altogether simulating entirely helpless and completely 

 crippled birds. No one unacquainted with the habits 

 of this class of birds could have believed, to see them 

 flapping along on the sands on their stomachs, every 

 now and then falling head over heels and lying quite 

 still for an instant, as if altogether exhausted, that 

 this was all a piece of consummate acting intended 

 to divert our attention from their nests." 



Hume here voices the popular opinion that birds, 

 when they behave as though they are injured, are 



