THE FLOCKING OF THE BIRDS 



THE passionate devotion of birds to their young 

 and the intensity of the maternal instinct make 

 a favourite theme of the sentimental writers on 

 natural history, and one not despised by writers 

 who keep their sentiment well in check. Curiously, 

 little seems to have been written on the related 

 subject of its speedy and complete inversion. 

 When incubating, birds notorious for their shyness 

 will stick to their nest till actually touched by 

 the hand of their most dreaded enemy Man. 

 Others, like members of the plover family, which 

 in normal circumstances can only with difficulty 

 be approached within gunshot, will, when they 

 have young in their charge, abandon every fear 

 and strike with angry wing at the head of any 

 intruder on their domain. Their chicks are the 

 objects of an overwhelming and passionate solici- 

 tude. Yet in a few brief weeks the whole of this 

 wonderfully absorbing devotion dries up and 

 vanishes, and in many cases its place is taken 

 by a positive and active driving -out hatred. 



The driving-out instinct is illustrated best in the 



case of eagles, such hawks as adopt a definite 



district as their own the buzzard is a case and 



the raven and its relatives the crows. All are good 



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