172 THE PSYCHICAL KINSHIP 



superior size, gorgeousness, and vivacity, usual to 

 the males, are found in the other sex, the females 

 being the larger and more brightly coloured — the 

 Phalarope family. Indeed, the members of this 

 small family not only reverse the usual arrange- 

 ment of the sexual characters of birds, but com- 

 pletely upset many of the most cherished tradi- 

 tions of the avian household. The female does the 

 wooing, and takes the lead in selecting the nest 

 site. And while she lays the eggs, the privilege of 

 incubation she hands over magnanimously to her 

 dull-coloured mate. 



Birds have a keen observation and a good deal 

 of that invaluable faculty known as common- 

 sense. It is wonderful how quickly they learn to 

 avoid telegraph-wires when these invisible but 

 deadly gossamers are first stretched across a 

 country, and how unerringly they keep at safe 

 distances when hunted with firearms. An ex- 

 perienced crow can tell a cane from a gun-barrel 

 almost as far as he can see it. 



Nearly all birds build nests of some kind in 

 which to cradle their eggs and young. The 

 cow-bird and cuckoo (European), however, are 

 exceptions. These birds have the rather human 

 practice of turning their cares and labours over to 

 somebody else. They are loafers and parasites. 

 They lay their eggs secretly in the nests of other 

 birds, where their eggs are hatched and their 

 young cared for by an alien mother. I have seen 

 a mother song-sparrow hustling about among the 

 shrubs and grasses for an hour at a time almost, 



