u6 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



and grouse, the instinct is singularly powerful, 

 the bird making such violent efforts to escape, 

 with such an outcry, such beating of its wings and 

 struggles on the ground, that no rapacious beast, 

 however often he may have been deceived before, 

 can fail to be carried away with the prospect of 

 an immediate capture. The instinct and action 

 has appeared to me more highly developed in 

 these birds because, in the first place, the demon- 

 strations are more violent than in other families, 

 consequently more effective ; and secondly, because 

 the danger once over, the bird's recovery to its 

 normal quiet, watchful state is quicker. By way 

 of experiment, I have at various times thrown 

 myself on pheasants, partridges and grouse, when 

 I have found them with a family of recently- 

 hatched chicks; then on giving up the chase and 

 turning away from the bird its instantaneous re- 

 covery has seemed like a miracle. It was like 

 a miracle because the creature did actually suffer 

 from all those violent, debilitating emotions ex- 

 pressed in its disordered cries and action, and it 

 is the miracle of Nature's marvellous health. If 

 we, for example, were thrown into these violent 

 extremes of passion, we should not escape the 



