CHAPTER V. 
FEAR IN BIRDS. 
Tue statement that birds instinctively fear man is 
frequently met with in zoological works written 
since the Origin of Species appeared ; but almost 
the only reason—absolutely the only plausible 
reason, all the rest being mere supposition—given 
in support of such a notion is that birds in desert 
islands show at first no fear of man, but afterwards, 
finding him a dangerous neighbour, they become 
wild ; and their young also grow up wild. It is 
thus assumed that the habit acquired by the former 
has become hereditary in the latter—or, at all 
events, that in time it becomes hereditary. Instincts, 
which are few in number in any species, and practi- 
cally endure for ever, are not, presumably, acquired 
with such extraordinary facility. 
Birds become shy where persecuted, and the 
young, even when not disturbed, learn a shy habit 
from the parents, and from other adults they 
associate with. I have found small birds shyer in 
desert places, where the human form was altogether 
strange to them, than in thickly-settled districts. 
Large birds are actually shyer than the small ones, 
although to the civilized or shooting man they seem 
astonishingly tame where they have never been 

