BIRD INTIMACIES 



and its deadly enemy. The great fear obliterates 

 all minor fears. 



The key to the behavior of the birds in this 

 respect may be found in the Darwinian theory of 

 natural selection. From the first settlement of the 

 country a few of the common birds, attracted by a 

 more suitable or more abundant food-supply, or 

 other conditions, must inevitably have nested near 

 human dwellings. These birds would thrive bet- 

 ter and succeed in bringing off more young than 

 those that nested in more exposed places. Hence, 

 their progeny would soon be in the ascendancy. All 

 animals seem to have associated memory. These 

 birds would naturally return to the scenes and con- 

 ditions of their youth, and start their nests there. 

 It would not be confidence in men that would draw 

 them; rather would the truth be that the fear of 

 man is inadequate to overcome or annul this home 

 attraction. 



The catbird does not come to our vines on the 

 veranda to nest from considerations of safety, but 

 because her line of descent runs through such places. 

 The catbirds and robins and phoebe-birds that were 

 reared far from human habitations doubtless return 

 to such localities to rear their young. The home 

 sense in birds is strong. I have positive proof in a 

 few instances of robins and song sparrows return- 

 ing successive years to the same neighborhood. It 

 is very certain, I think, that the phoebe-birds that 



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