112 Instinct and its Lessons 



water-logging his water-proofs, only to find her presently, 

 on a sudden, recover her powers and be off: while, if he 

 had waited quietly, and looked about him, he would 

 have seen a brood of ducklings paddling in all directions 

 to seek for cover. "Is it conceivable," asks Mr. Mivart, 

 "that such an act was first done by pure accident, so 

 that the descendants of the first Duck which so acted, 

 having inherited the tendency, have alone been selected 

 and preserved?" 1 



This supposition appears, if possible, yet more improb- 

 able, when we find different species of birds adepts in 

 acting the same part. Partridges will constantly tumble 

 along as if with a broken wing, when their covey is in 

 danger.- I have seen a Willow-wren delude, in this 

 manner, that most dangerous of animals, a school-boy, 

 leading him thirty yards from her nest, and then quietly 

 popping over the neighbouring hedge. This same year 

 the same trick has been tried, within my knowledge, by 

 a Reed-bunting. The common Sandpiper plays the 

 game elaborately, pretending that both wing and leg are 

 injured, so that it can neither fly nor run ; his cousin the 

 Snipe acts his part in much the same fashion, while the 

 Tree Pipit and White-throat exhibit a less finished per- 

 formance, fluttering along the ground as though too 

 weak to escape. Are we to believe that these birds, and 

 others, have all independently struck out, by accident, 

 this histrionic talent ? The dramatic touches thrown in, 

 according to circumstances, are in the highest style of 

 art. Walking into the midst of a brood of Partridges 

 suddenly, with a dog, I have seen both old birds, in face 

 of so imminent a danger, tumble demonstratively about, 

 screaming as if in severe pain. That a Partridge will go 

 through the performance of dying is attested by Mr. 

 Harrison Weir, the well-known artist: "A little way in 

 front a Partridge was struggling on the ground, some- 

 times on her back, and then rolling over and over, till, 

 after one or two apparently exhaustive efforts, she fell, 

 and lay as if dead." 2 The whole thing being a deliberate 

 1 Tablet ', May 26, 1 888. 2 Bird Stories, p. 21. 



