CHAPTER V. 



FEAR IN BIRDS. 



THE statement that birds instinctively fear man is 

 frequently met with in zoological works written 

 since the Origin of Species appeared ; but almost 

 the only reason absolutely the only plausible 

 reason, all the rest being mere supposition given 

 in support of such a notion is that birds in desert 

 islands show at first no fear of man, but afterwards, 

 finding him a dangerous neighbour, they become 

 wild ; and their young also grow up wild. It is 

 thus assumed that the habit acquired by the former 

 has become hereditary in the latter or, at all 

 events, that in time it becomes hereditary. Instincts, 

 which are few in number in any species, and practi- 

 cally endure for ever, are not, presumably, acquired 

 with such extraordinary facility. 



Birds become shy where persecuted, and the 

 young, even when not disturbed, learn a shy habit 

 from the parents, and from other adults they 

 associate with. I have found small birds shyer in 

 desert places, where the human form was altogether 

 strange to them, than in thickly-settled districts. 

 Large birds are actually shyer than the small ones, 

 although to the civilized or shooting man they seem 

 astonishingly tame where they have never been 

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