WILD WINGS: A FAREWELL 301 



observe that although they all meet and mix in an 

 easy friendly manner there is yet a great difference in 

 their dispositions and in their ideas about fun if it be 

 permissible to put it in that way. In some of the 

 most social species, small shore birds, starlings and 

 rooks, for instance, their games are mostly among 

 themselves and are quite harmless although there 

 is often a pretence of anger. That is part of the game 

 just as it is with kittens and with children. The gulls 

 mix but do not affiliate with the others and play no 

 tricks on their neighbours, like the crow, just for 

 mischief's sake. They want something more substantial. 

 They must have it out of some one and it is usually 

 the peewit. He, the gull, flies about in a somewhat 

 aimless way, then drops down among them to rest on 

 the turf or walks about curiously inspecting the grass, 

 perhaps wondering what the mysterious sense or 

 faculty of the rook and starling is by means of which 

 they know just which individual grass among a hundred 

 grasses contains a grub in its roots — a fat morsel which 

 may be unearthed by a thrust of the beak. The grass 

 tells him nothing and in the end he finds it more 

 profitable to watch the other probers at work. He 

 sidles up in a casual manner to the peewit pretending 

 all the time to be honestly seeking for something himself 

 but watching the other's motions very keenly to be 

 ready at the prime moment when a grub is being 

 pulled out to make a dash for it. 



There was another bird who took no part at all 

 in the work and play of the others — a kestrel who made 



