86 Habit and Instinct. 



at one of the plovers, but timidly withal. In a quarter of 

 an hour or so they were all in happy agreement. Of my 

 quiet dog these little moorhens showed no fear, but of 

 vigorous young plovers they seemed somewhat afraid ! 



The following observations of Spalding's have often 

 been quoted : " When twelve days old one of my little 

 proteges, while running about beside me, gave the peculiar 

 chirr whereby they announce the approach of danger. 

 I looked up, and behold a sparrow-hawk was hovering 

 at a great height overhead. Equally striking was the 

 effect of the hawk's voice when heard for the first time. 

 A young turkey, which I had adopted when chirping within 

 the uncracked shell, was, on the morning of the tenth day 

 of its life, eating a comfortable breakfast from my hand, 

 when the young hawk, in a cupboard just beside us, gave a 

 shrill chip, chip, chip. Like an arrow the poor turkey 

 shot to the other side of the room, and stood there motion- 

 less and dumb with fear until the hawk gave a second cry, 

 when it darted out at the open door right to the extreme 

 end of the passage, and there, silent and crouched in a 

 corner, remained for ten minutes. Several times during 

 the course of that day it again heard these alarming 

 sounds, and in every instance with similar manifestations 

 of fear." 



With regard to the first observation, on the effect of a 

 sparrow-hawk overhead, it may perhaps fairly be questioned 

 whether the reaction was in response to the particularized 

 stimulus of the sight of a hawk as such. I noticed that a 

 moorhen chick was startled and cowered in the reeds when 

 some geese flew at a considerable height above him. Miss 

 Hayward noted a case in point. A robin, she says,* " was 

 piping on the edge of my veranda as usual, asking for a 

 bit of bacon ; but when I went to the window, opened it, 



* " Bird Notes," p. 105. 



