300 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



them, summer and winter, and in whatever occu- 

 pation they are engaged. Both on this and another 

 occasion, the sitting bird, when I walked down the 

 bank, went off the nest without covering the eggs, 

 the first time letting me get quite near, before going, 

 and, the next, taking alarm whilst I was still at some 

 distance. It seems odd that it did not, in either 

 instance, conceal the eggs and steal off without 

 waiting. To suppose that it thought itself ob- 

 served, and that, therefore, concealment was of no 

 use, would be to credit it with greater powers of 

 reflection than I feel inclined to do. I rather look 

 upon the habit as a fluctuating and unintelligent 

 one, and in the continuation of the building and 

 arranging of the nest, after incubation has begun, 

 we probably see its origin. As bearing upon this 

 view, it is, I think, worth recording that upon this 

 last occasion of their change on the nest, the bird 

 that relieved its partner — the male, as I fancy — 

 pulled about and arranged the weeds, after jumping 

 up, though the eggs had been left uncovered, the 

 female, as usual, going off suddenly, without the 

 smallest halt or pause. Once let the birds become 

 accustomed to pull about the weeds of the nest, 

 before leaving and settling down upon the eggs, 

 and natural selection would do the rest. The eggs 

 which were most often covered would have the best 

 chance of being hatched, and the uncovering them 

 would be a matter of necessity. Here, again, I can 

 see no room for those little steps or pinches of 

 intelligence, on which instincts, according to the 

 prevailing view, are supposed to have been built up. 

 The prevalence and strength of mere meaningless 



