72 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 
these youngsters have had no previous experience of man! 
Truly there is almost no limit to what might be said 
about “inherited instinct.” These young Robins, without 
any training, or introduction, will almost (actually, some- 
times) take a grub or worm from my fingers. They hop 
about within a foot or two of my spade whilst I search for 
another worm, and as though to emphasise their impatience 
(and familiarity), should a worm not be promptly forth- 
coming, they fly to a branch close to my face and pick 
off a large black currant. Often they swallow it, however 
big, more often perhaps they allow it to drop to the 
ground and pay no more attention to it, but proceed to 
pluck another—sheer waste? But the instant a nice worm 
is turned up they quit the bush, and it is a race who is 
to be first for it. Two or three of them will sometimes 
dispute possession across my feet! Then the victor retires 
with his prize, while his brothers, disdaining pursuit, either 
start pulling more berries (mostly to be dropped) or essay 
to express their indifference in song. In any event, it is 
in the main only a case of pour passer le temps, for the 
appearance of another worm instantly brings them all 
back to my feet. 
The swallowing capacity of those young Robins is 
surprising. The largest black currant goes down whole 
without apparent effort. On one occasion one seized a fat 
female ghost-moth (Hepzalus humulz) that was drying her 
newly acquired wings within a yard of me, and promptly 
bolted it, wings and all! 
Garden-warblers seem to be most addicted to rasps, but 
failing these they fall back indiscriminately upon either 
red or white currants. I have not noticed them touch 
black currants. They appear to be distinctly more given 
to fruit-eating than their near relatives, the Blackcaps. 
The latter, too (here at Alston, at any rate), show a distinct 
preference for small berries over rasps. In other years 
I have noticed them eating the fruit of flowering-currants, 
honeysuckle, and ivy. Their liking for some of these is 
shared by the Garden-warbler, and both species, as well 
as the Whitethroats, are particularly fond of the berries 
