Birds in Relation to their Prey. 107 



apparent impatience at C's dallying, extracted it after a short 

 struggle from her grip, and swallowed it himself," and ate 

 the next two himself without troubling to offer them to her. 

 The experiment continued to be interesting along the same 

 lines. In the case of the second lot of Hoopoes, D and E, 

 the relationship was probably not that of a parent and child, 

 but matrimonial, and each gave to the other. The male, 

 however, was the chief giver, and he was certainly a most 

 generous and painstaking husband until his wife snatched. 

 Then he gave her a most comical but effective lesson in 

 discipline and mannei-s (experiment 518). 



It is impossible to carry out a long series of food-experi- 

 ments without deciding that bird-language is really a very 

 adequate instrument of communication, and that human 

 beings talk too much. Nothing could have been clearer 

 than the rebuke administered in experiment 518 and the fact 

 that Irrisor E accepted it in a duly chastened spirit. Ag:iin, 

 nothing could have been clearer and more unmistakable than 

 A's actions in attempting to dissuade C from eating the 

 Danaida in experiment 506, or than the actions of both birds 

 in announcing to me their unwillingness to accept the last 

 Danaida in experiment 507. Bill-wiping is a very wide- 

 spread signal of dislike and refusal — not that it is used for 

 this alone, for the bill often has to be merely cleaned. The 

 light closing of its tip on the object offered, followed by an 

 immediate withdrawal (in experiment 507), is also a common 

 mode of refusal. My Owl (Si/rnium), in refusing thus, 

 would indulge in what I could only call "apologetic 

 nibbling," her bill sometimes not even closing on the object 

 " nibbled.'^ Turning the back is a last and most emphatic 

 form of refusal, and used to be indulged in by my Roller; 

 it occurred in experiment 530. Anger was vividly expressed 

 in experiment 520, probable request for information in expe- 

 riments 527, 532, and 533, and gallantry to the opposite sex 

 (or was it practical joking?) in 531. Eagerness has also its 

 special signs— uised, as I have seen, even by wild birds 

 in soliciting prey captured by a companion — and so has 

 disappointment. Even thanks was expressed in the bowing 

 of the Hoopoes. Add the expressions of affection that are 



8* 



