CHAPTER NINE ANIMAL INSTINCT 



THERE are two birds, which although wild 

 and unapproachable at every other time, 

 throwthemselves during the breeding-season 

 on the mercy and protection of man: these 

 are the wood-pigeon and the missel-thrush. Scarcely any 

 bird is more wary than the wood-pigeon at other times, yet 

 in the spring there are generally half a dozen nests in the 

 most exposed places close to my house, while the old birds 

 sit tamely, and apparently devoid of all fear, close to the 

 windows; they seem to have an instinctive knowledge of 

 places where they are allowed to go through the business 

 of incubation without being molested. In like manner, the 

 missel-thrush, though duringthe rest of the year it is nearly 

 impossible to get within a hundred yards of it, forms its 

 nest in the apple-trees close to the house: they build at a 

 height of six or seven feet, in the fork of the tree where the 

 main limbs branch off; and although their nest is large, it 

 is so carefully constructed of materials resembling in colour 

 the bark of the tree, and is made to blend itself so gradu- 

 ally with the branches as to show no distinct outline of a 

 nest, and to render it very difficult to discover; and this 

 bird, at other times so shy and timid, sits so close on her 

 eggs that she will almost allow herself to be taken by the 

 hand. The missel-thrushes on the approach of a hawk give 

 a loud cry of alarm, and then collecting all their neighbours 

 lead them on to attack the common enemy, swooping and 

 striking fearlessly at him, till he is driven out of the vicinity 

 of their nests. 



The observation of the different plans that birds adopt 

 to avoid the discovery and destruction of their eggs, is by 



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