PERSONALITY IN BIRDS 211 



silent, crouching Snipe upon some Redshanks and a 

 Ringed Plover that had wandered, carelessly feeding, 

 into their midst. I had stalked the Redshanks and 

 Ringed Plover from a willow-screened ditch skirting 

 a patch of marsh along which they were advancing, 

 feeding intently, and was surprised to see these birds, 

 after moving so freely, suddenly draw up and assume 

 rigid attitudes of attention. It was plainly to be 

 seen that I was not the immediate cause of this 

 quick change in their conduct, for beyond the fact 

 that I was still and well under cover, the birds were 

 tail-on towards me and evidently unable to locate the 

 source of danger. Closer examination of the ground 

 about them revealed eight Snipe crouching flat to 

 earth in Sphinx-like immobility. Then I recognised 

 that the Snipe had seen me as I approached, con- 

 cerned only to screen myself from the Redshanks 

 and Ringed Plover, and that the latter, walking 

 unsuspectingly amidst the crouching Snipe, were 

 influenced by their strange attitude so as immediately 

 to assume it themselves. Here significant action 

 took the place of intelligent speech, the attitude of 

 fear exhibited by the Snipe arousing in the Red- 

 shanks and Ringed Plover a corresponding emotion 

 of fear prompting them instinctively to similar 

 behaviour. 



From the foregoing some idea may be gathered 

 as to the limitation to which the conception of 

 personality is subject when applied to birds or other 

 non-rational beings. Conscious personality based 

 upon memory stocked with the rationalised products 

 of experience, they have not ; but that passive form 

 of memory by which a present experience will release, 



