THE THRUSH GENUS 391 



nest, and on the same day the cock was seen still engaged in feeding 

 the young of the first brood. Whether the hen continued to feed 

 them was not noted. 1 



In defence of their young both the blackbird and the song-thrush 

 have been seen to feign injury in order to divert the attention of an 

 enemy. A writer in the Field states that he saw a thrush retreating 

 upon the ground before him with its wings trailing, as if broken. 

 When he returned to the spot from which it had started, and found 

 the nest, the bird " recovered its normal position and began flitting 

 from bush to bush in great agitation." The following additional 

 details of this incident are worth giving, as they supply an interesting 

 example of an apparently intelligent adaptation to new and unusual 

 circumstances. The nest was in a small bush, but overturned. 

 Immediately below it, in a hollow in the ground, neatly lined with 

 dry grass, were four half-fledged nestlings. If this dry grass was put 

 in as a lining, and not as an ezterim; the incident is all the more 

 remarkable, as it shows a distinct departure from custom. 2 



The only case I have been able to find of feigning by the 

 blackbird is equally interesting. One of a pair used to feign distress, 

 by trailing and flapping its wings on the ground in order to divert 

 the attention of a cat from its young. Puss was led up a tree and 

 there left. The performance occurred so often that a fox-terrier on 

 the premises is reported to have learnt the meaning of the blackbird's 

 cries ; it used to issue forth and take advantage of the cat's pre- 

 occupation to attack it suddenly and triumphantly in the rear. 3 



Similar cases of feigning are not unknown among others of the 

 Family, but they appear to be rare. It is, however, exceedingly 

 important that they should be carefully recorded, whenever seen, 

 for the feigning instinct, if it be an instinct, is one that presents 

 several points of interest to the student of animal psychology. 4 



1 Harper Gaythorpe. See note 3, p. 372. 



2 Field, 1901, vol. xcvii. p. 976 (L. R. W. Lloyd). 



3 C. R. Mitchell, Nature's Story of the Year, p. 00. 



4 See Lloyd Morgan's Habit and Instinct, p. 248. 



