i66 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



furious barkings to their reedy little refuge. And 

 as with these moor-hens, so it is with all wild birds j 

 they fear and fly from, and suspiciously watch from 

 a safe distance, whatever molests them, and wherever 

 man suspends his hostility towards them they quickly 

 outgrow the suspicion which experience has taught 

 them, or which is traditional among them ; for the 

 young and inexperienced imitate the action of the 

 adults they associate with, and learn the suspicious 

 habit from them. 



It is also interesting and curious to note that a 

 bird which inhabits two countries, in summer and 

 winter, regulates his habits in accordance with the 

 degree of friendliness or hostility exhibited towards 

 him by the human inhabitants of the respective areas. 

 The bird has in fact two traditions with regard to 

 man's attitude towards him — one for each country. 

 Thus, the fieldfare is an exceedingly shy bird in Eng- 

 land, but when he returns to the north, if his breed- 

 ing place is in some inhabited district in northern 

 Sweden or Norway he loses all his wildness and 

 builds his nest quite close to the houses. My friend 

 Trevor Battye saw a pair busy making their nest 

 in a small birch within a few yards of the front 

 door of a house he was staying at. " How strange," 

 said he to the man of the house, " to see fieldfares 

 making a nest in such a place ! " " Why strange i " 

 said the man in surprise. " Why strange i Because 



