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Dr. A. G. Butler,


ARE BIRDS DECEITFUL?


By Dr. A. G. Butler.


The answer to this question is, I think, that they are so when

they have an object in view ; but not otherwise. Thus we know

from many recorded and well authenticated instances, as well as

from personal experience when we have tramped the country with

our eyes open, that many birds will pretend to be crippled if one

approaches their nests or young, or will dive into bushes or shrubs

at some distance from the nest (passing quietly out on the other side)

in order to deceive one as to its location.


In like manner a malicious or predacious bird will sit sleepily

upon a branch until some weak and unsuspecting species settles

within its reach when it will suddenly pounce upon it. As I have

elsewhere recorded, I had several unpleasant proofs of this in the

case of a Rose-headed Parrakeet which successively killed a Whin-

chat, Stonechat, and Skylark in this sly manner: in the case of the

last-mentioned the parrakeet may have been scandalized to see a

Skylark sitting on a branch, though I have frequently seen another

example which I kept in a different aviary sitting on a branch in

the daytime: at night it always roosted on the earth.


When, however, it is confidently asserted that birds deliber¬

ately disguise their nests with lichen, moss, bits of paper, &c., in

order to render them inconspicuous, I am satisfied that those who

make such assertions cannot have had much experience in searching

for nests. It is quite true that such materials attached to the

outside walls of nests do render them frequently less conspicuous

than they would be otherwise, but they are not utilized by the

builders with the object of deceiving, but because they are readily

obtainable and perhaps appeal to the bird’s aesthetic taste.


Nothing could be more conspicuous than the nest of a Long¬

tailed Tit or a Chaffinch covered with whitish lichen and stuck in

the outside twigs of a roadside hedge : such nests are irresistible

temptations to the mischievous ck^lhopper and are pretty certain to

be torn out and pulled to pieces ; yet no end of fairy-tales have been

told of the ingenuity of these and other birds in disguising their nests

by such adornments. I believe one eager exponent of the well-

known fact of protective assimilation mentioned having seen a



