BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 63 



However, it is a curious, and really baffling, commen- 

 tary on the whole incident that thereafter two old wood- 

 pigeons and a young one, before the household was up in the 

 morning, and off and on during the day, used to come down 

 upon the lawn and examine the spot where the captive's 

 basket had stood, and which, after the young bird's flight, we 

 had shaken out on the spot, scattering all the peas and food 

 that was in it upon the grass. Every day a handtul of 

 crumbs or maize used to be thrown there, and every day the 

 family came for it. By what process of "instinct" could wild 

 birds be led to behave so unreasonably ? Did they separate 

 in their " minds " the incidents of capture and of release, and 

 being unable to put one and one together, consider the latter 

 as an isolated act of benevolence apart from, and quite uncon- 

 nected with, the former, and so behave with gratitude in conse- 

 quence ? Did they look on us only as the good Jack Stout 

 who pulled Pussy out, forgetting that we were also the naughty 

 Tommy Green who put Pussy in ? But the workings of 

 "instinct" are not to be followed out by "reason," or what 

 shall we say of all the other birds v^'ho, until we find their 

 nests, are full of artifice to mislead us, and apparently most 

 anxious that their secret should not be known, but who, once 

 their nest is found, appear to lose all concern about the 

 matter, and move to and fro as if it were the most natural 

 thing in the world to treat us with confidence and be 

 thoroughly aboveboard with us ? 



