VOl 1909^ T ] Palmer, Instinctive Stillness in Birds. 31 



became quite successful. It was found in a large number of cases 

 that by walking in a straight line, slightly crouching and taking 

 short quick steps without wobbling or swaying, it was often possible 

 to get much nearer than by other means. In most cases the bird 

 not noticing or understanding the slight increase in size as I drew 

 nearer, nor being influenced by irregular side motions, would 

 remain perched for quite a while and sometimes appeared inter- 

 ested. In other cases I found that by not walking directly toward 

 a bird but viewing it occasionally out of the corner of my eye, it 

 was possible to approach quite closely and even to walk around it. 

 Confidence and curiosity may be induced by cautious movement 

 so that even a sitting bird can be stroked. With care one can drive 

 flocks of sandpipers along a beach while but a few feet behind them 

 as well as single birds. 



It is a rare experience to stalk a Wild Turkey but rarer still to 

 stalk a flock. On one occasion I heard turkeys far off in some 

 rather open woods soon after sunrise and debated with myself the 

 possibility of getting within range. Approaching them, but still 

 some distance away, I took care to move in a straight line while 

 in possible vision. At last I had only to climb one small hill after 

 crossing a flat wet ravine and though I really had but little expecta- 

 tion of working myself near enough for a shot I concluded to at- 

 tempt it. Long before I had been in sight of the turkeys, as I 

 supposed though I had not seen them, I had dropped on my knees 

 using my left hand as one foot and the gunstock in my right as 

 another and keeping my head down made fair although slow prog- 

 ress. The turkeys were very suspicious, but evidently unwilling 

 to allow such a strange and slow-moving creature to drive them 

 away, so their inquisitiveness, or indecision, influenced them to 

 permit too near an approach. 



In Aggressive Mimicry the following will illustrate the importance 

 of stillness and its relative, cautious movement. A heron walking 

 along the water's edge by its motion drives away the minnows 

 swarming in the shallows, but if it stands motionless they slowly 

 return and the bird readily obtains its meal. If its forward move- 

 ment is slow and stealthy the movements of the fish will correspond, 

 while quicker or uncertain motions cause a different action in the 

 fish than the more effective one. Putting myself in the place of the 



