8 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



noble man alone. A bird has not the remotest idea that 

 its nest will be plundered, or its young destro}ed, but it 

 has existing- within it, and planted there through the 

 agency of a subtle and powerful law, a certain power 

 which we call ' instinct,' which it irresistibly displays in its 

 own particular manner, without any knowledge of the 

 good it is working for the protection and safety of its 

 eggs and young ; yet in such an effectual manner are 

 these wiles displayed, as to keep up its species till timiC 

 shall be no more, or Nature's designing hand wills that 

 its race shall cease to be. 



I intend dividing this peculiar instinct into six divi- 

 sions, and will take them in the following order:- Firstly, 

 colour ; secondly, mimicry ; thirdly, silence ; fourthly, 

 alluring motions ; fifthly, pugnacious motions ; and, 

 sixthly, deceptive motions. 



Colour. — If we wish to observe examples of this pe- 

 culiar instinct, we must stroll into the nesting-grounds of 

 the Pheasant, for instance, and there we shall find that the 

 female bird, with a mother's watchful care, upon leaving 

 her charge for a short time to recruit her failing strength 

 with necessary food, covers her eggs with pieces of vege- 

 tation strictly harmonising with the colour of the herbage 

 around. Thus, if her nest — or cavity, for a nest it can 

 scarcely be called — in which her eggs are deposited is 

 situated amongst a tangled mass of bracken, the bird 

 v;ill cover her eggs with the same material. Should her 

 eggs be snugly ensconced in the shelter of a tuft of grass, 

 materials harmonising in colour will be used to cover 

 them during her temporary absence. When the bird is 

 upon her charge, her own plumage so closely resem- 

 bles the surroundings, that, trusting in these for safety, 

 she remains faithful to it, until perhaps unwittingly 

 trodden upon by an intruder. Again, the Sand Grouse 



