JUNE 133 



across only one other recorded instance of this be- 

 haviour by the male bird. 



'In 1883,' says Mr. C. A. Allen (Nineteenth Century, April 

 1893), 'I met with a brood of young plumed partridges in 

 Oregon. The male, who had charge of them, performed the 

 usual tactics of feigning lameness, and tried his very best 

 to draw my attention from the young, and, seeing I paid no 

 attention to him, showed a great deal of distress. The young 

 scattered promptly in all directions, and the majority were 

 most effectually hidden in an instant.' 



The device is hardly ever resorted to, except on 

 behalf of the brood; but I once saw a hen grouse 

 make prolonged pretence of being crippled in order to 

 protect her mate, a robust old cock. This was in 

 Sutherland, in the month of February, long before 

 there were any young birds hatched. The cock lay 

 so close that I very nearly trod upon him. When he 

 was flushed the hen bird took to wing at once, and 

 flew after him across the river. 



Mr. Lloyd Morgan, in his interesting volume on 

 Habit and Instinct, devotes several pages to con- 

 sideration of this remarkable manifestation of parental 

 solicitude. Is it, he asks, a truly congenital and in- 

 stinctive habit, or is it an intelligent action on the 

 part of individual birds ? He cannot answer these 

 questions, wherein, says he, there are materials for a 

 pretty dispute between transmissionists and natural 

 selectionists. For my own part, I incline to the view 

 that the action is purely intelligent and conscious ; as 

 much so as the wariness which wild birds acquire in 

 the presence of the arch-enemy Man, enabling them 



