CHAPTER XII 



Special instincts of birds — ^The play of young birds and of adults 

 — Bower-builders and their peculiarities — Ornamentation of 

 nests — The instinct for food-storage in some forms — The 

 practice of piracy — ^Toilet and bed-time habits. 



It is in the study of certain special and sparse- 

 distributed instincts of birds that their mental and 

 moral similarity to ourselves often comes out best, 

 and though in Europe we are not as well off for 

 birds with habits of striking interest as are some 

 of the other continents, there is yet now and 

 again a point of much sympathetic interest to be 

 gleaned from the study of our species. 



Playfulness for instance is well developed in some 

 European birds ; the young of the Redpoll bred in 

 an aviary have been described as playing about like 

 kittens, just as I have seen young aviary-bred 

 Budgerigars do. Not only do young ducks of 

 various species play, but I have seen full-grown and 

 full-plumaged drakes do so, a favourite trick with 

 Mallard' being to fly for a few feet just above the 

 water and then close the wings and dive headlong 

 into it — exactly the manoeuvre the young but 

 fledged Gannet performs in practising its trade, 

 judging from some they had at the Zoo some time 



ago. 



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