CHAPTER XIII. 

 FEAR IN BIRDS. 



BIRDS as a rule are possessed of fear which is primarily an instinct, but as we shall 

 see later on many species in their natural adult state are entirely devoid of this 

 sense. With others it may wax or wane according to their environment or indi- 

 vidual experiences. Again the nature of the fear manifested varies with age or the 

 period of life. It is a generalized sense of fear, or fear of the strange and unusual, which 

 comes over the young bird, while later it learns to dread particular objects or sounds with 

 which some bitter experience is associated. Furthermore, the time of the appearance of 

 the instinct varies in different species, coming late in some and early in others. Generally 

 speaking the manifestation of fear is well timed, and is an adaptation for the good of its 

 possessor. 



Let us first see how fear enters into the life of the young. Birds are sometimes 

 roughly classified into altricial species, which feed their young for days or weeks at the 

 nest, and praecocial birds, whose young are born clad in soft down, and are able to walk, 

 run, or swim at once or very soon after hatching. The Altrices like the Robin, Wood- 

 pecker, and Humming-bird are hatched from eggs which are small in relation to the size 

 of the parent, and the young are at first blind, helpless, and more or less completely 

 naked. In all such the nest is only a temporary home, but is often very elaborate, while 

 the instinct of fear is delayed or deferred until the time of flight, a period varying from a 

 few days to three weeks or more. The Praecoces lay eggs with big yolks, upon the 

 stored energy of which the unhatched young subsist until they step forth into the world, 

 seeing, able to walk or swim, and in some degree their own masters. The common do- 

 mestic fowls, Partridges, Ostriches, Geese, Loons, Plover, and Snipe, are some of the better 

 known representatives of this group, but the dividing line is never sharply drawn, and 

 there are innumerable gradations between the extremes in either class. In the praecocial 

 birds the feeling of fear is either present at birth, or appears in a very few hours or days, 



As an illustration of the development of fear in the altricial kinds one might select 

 any of the common passerine birds, Thrushes, Warblers, Finches, or Flycatchers, but we 

 should bear in mind that the development of this instinct is not always uniformly timed, 

 even in the same species. We will choose the Catbird, the Chestnut-sided Warbler, and 

 the Kingfisher. 



When I first camped beside a Catbird's nest (No. 6 of table, Chap. I.) last summer, 

 the young, who were then about a week old, were incapable of fear. They would shift 

 about the nest to get into the shade, pant, and erect their growing head-feathers. When 

 a breeze rocked the cradle, or a Redwing Blackbird sang his conquer-ee, or the parent 



117 



