on the Psychology of Birds.



129



The almost immediate recognition of their security in the

Park is remarkable, and birds which seldom show themselves

within sight of civilization have come again and again, and

exhibited a tameness which deceives many people into thinking

they must be escaped birds. The honoured visitation of Canada

Geese will long testify to the truth of this. Wild Sea-Gulls quite

often drop from their loose flocks passing overhead, and consort

for a few days with their wing-clipped kindred. When they

leave, the young gulls which have been hatched in the Park

usually accompany them, but return in a few hours to their

home and flock. Ducks, Herons, and Hawks show as quick a

realization of their immunity from danger in the Park.


Green Herons creep like feathered phantoms among the

branches of the trees overhanging the water, while Great Blue

and Black-crowned Night Herons, forgetting all shyness, clamber

over the arches of the big flying cage in broad daylight, and in

sight of hundreds of people, peering down at their brethren

inside and uttering envious quawks as they see the bountiful

repast of fish and shrimps prepared for those fortunate ones.


The treatment of the tame Crows raised from the nest by

their wild relations offers an interesting psychological study.

Casual notes of mine show that the condition of affairs is about

as follows : The tame individuals are a source of great concern

to their feral friends. That no gun will be turned against them

these wild birds well know, but such utter contempt as familiarity

with man has bred in the tame Crows—closely superintending

every important change of cages or birds, often alighting on the

very head or shoulders of the attendants—this the wild Crows,

viewing from a distance, seem to think is evidence of a dis¬

ordered mind, and they forthwith use every wile, every stratagem

in their power, to entice the tame birds back to their ranks.


Often in summer when I arrive early in the Park I surprise

a company of them “ having it out”—the tame bird surrounded

by a ring of his fellows, all talking at once, and giving him no

chance for argument. But they have their trouble for their pains,

for liis is a life of unnumbered daily meals, not to mention the

opportunities for stealing and hoarding sundry keys, knives, and

other bright plunder—the occupation dearest to a corvine heart.



