BIRDS ON THE LAWN 8l 



so keen in some respects and so defective in others. 

 A bird of prey while floating in the air does not fail 

 to notice a small animal on the ground 3000 feet 

 below. Nevertheless, that same bird wiU allow itself 

 to become entangled in a coarse net stretched out 

 in front of a tethered bird. I once asked a falconer 

 how he would explain such inconsistencies in the 

 behaviour of raptorial birds. He replied that in his 

 opinion the bird of prey sees the net but fails to 

 appreciate its nature, that the falcon looks upon 

 the net spread before its quarry as a spider's web, 

 as a gossamer structure that can be contemptuously 

 swept aside. I think that the falconer's explanation 

 is not the correct one. I believe that the bird of prey 

 really does not see the net. It has eyes only for its 

 quarry. It is not trained to look out for snares, 

 having no experience of them under natural con- 

 ditions. A bird that had several times been snared 

 while stooping at its prey would learn the nature of 

 a net and avoid it. 



Similarly, birds, being unaccustomed to see living 

 creatures emerge from apparently solid structures, 

 do not look for human beings inside mosquito nets, 

 and so fail to observe them. The consequence is 

 that the birds hop and strut about the lawn within a 

 few feet of my bed, or even perch on the mosquito 

 curtain frame, utterly unconscious of my presence. 



There is to me something very fascinating in thus 

 watching at close quarters the ways of my feathered 

 friends. My compound boasts of a lawn, sufficiently 

 large for three tennis courts, which owing to much 



