28 Palmer, Instinctive Stillness in Birds. [fan 



gallopavo osceola). He was standing in the corner of a fence when 

 a turkey, accompanied by a flock of little ones, jumped through a 

 gap on his right. They slowly advanced toward him and it was 

 only when the old bird was nearly opposite him that he was evi- 

 dently noticed. Without alarm she continued on her way past, 

 and but a few feet off, until the young had reached the opposite 

 fence when, suddenly uttering her note of alarm, the brood instantly 

 scattered through the rails while the mother bird flew off over them. 

 The man was so astonished at the arrival of the birds, and then at 

 the apparent nonchalance of the mother, that he entirely forgot his 

 object and did not recover his presence of mind until the whir of 

 wings showed him that he had been outwitted. 



A friend and myself were recently eating our lunch on a narrow 

 sandy beach of Chesapeake Bay. An adult Spotted Sandpiper 

 soon came quietly toward us picking up food on its way. When 

 about twelve feet off it noticed us for the first time, hesitated and 

 viewed us intently and motionless for what seemed a long period 

 and then retraced its steps for a short distance. Once more it 

 returned, examined the strange coatless and motionless things in 

 its way and then went back, occasionally picking up food, but soon 

 facing us again. A few Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura septen- 

 trionalis) had been sailing above the cliffs behind us and once in a 

 while a shadow would pass up or over the beach. As the bird 

 viewed us from its last stand it soon noticed a vulture coming near 

 and instantly turning with its tail toward us, head and bill obliquely 

 pointing to the water and crouching a little, stood as if turned to 

 stone while the shadow passed within a few feet. The whole 

 performance, so near and unusual, was a very pretty and unex- 

 pected exhibit of mimicry with its attendant stillness. The color 

 of the bird's back was in perfect harmony with the wet sand and it 

 certainly seemed doubtful that it could have been seen by a preda- 

 tory enemy except when it was in motion. 



Stillness is not a characteristic of birds alone, as the following 

 instance that occurred on St. Paul's Island, Alaska, shows. Wan- 

 dering over the island on a bright day I had reached the large lake 

 toward Northeast Point and was walking on its narrow beach 

 when I noticed the track of a Blue Fox, and finally caught sight of 

 it as it rounded one of the numerous points jutting out into the 



