BIRD PERSONALITIES AND HABITS 



Practically every human emotion is manifested in 

 the life histories of birds. Pride, generosity, jealousy, 

 anger, fear, love, shyness, caution, shrewdness and sus- 

 picion are only a few of the traits and actions observed 

 in our feathered friends. I see no object in calling these 

 sentiments human, since they are all expressed in the 

 most forceful manner. Why not call them bird traits I 

 They are also found in man, it is true, but are not birds 

 entitled to their own personalities? 



Because a bird will fight in defense of its young, or 

 act as though crippled in order to entice you, as you 

 chase it, from the vicinity of its nest, or because it will 

 feign death on your approach, is no reason why these 

 acts should be called human traits. In the interpreta- 

 tion of them we may use our thoughts and human words, 

 and apply them with justice to bird thoughts and bird 

 actions. 



Many writers do not give birds sufficient credit for 

 possessing an intelligence of their own, peculiar to the 

 species, or acquired by adaptability to new or varied sur- 

 roundings. Birds accomplish many things easily where 

 we would make dismal failures. 



Personal contact with wild birds of ttimes gives vary- 

 ing experiences, probably as a result of difference of 

 environment, failure of the powers of observation, or 

 inability to record the results correctly at the time the 

 observations are made. The habits of a bird in a cage 

 and the behavior of a bird in its wild, unhampered state 

 may differ materially and with a casual observer may 

 lead to wrong deductions. Some birds may, by force 

 of surroundings, merge their natural traits into those 

 of others, nest-building in unusual places and adopting 

 a diet foreign to their usual one ; yet these birds do not, 

 in the main, lose their personality, for once their natural 

 surroundings have been re-established, their broods 



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