CHAPTER V 



FEAR IN BIRDS. 



The statement that birds instinctively fear man is 

 frequently met with in zoological works written 

 since the Origin of Species appeared ; but almost 

 the only reason — absolutely the only plausible 

 reason, all the rest being mere supposition — given 

 in support of such a notion is that birds in desert 

 islands show at first no fear of man, but afterwards, 

 finding him a dangerous neighbour, they become 

 wild ; and their young also grow up wild. It is 

 thus assumed that the habit acquired by the former 

 has become hereditary in the latter — or, at all 

 events, that in time it becomes hereditary. Instincts, 

 which are few in number in any species, and practi- 

 cally endure for ever, are not, presumably, acquired 

 with such extraordinary facility. 



Birds become shy where persecuted, and the 

 young, even when not disturbed, learn a shy habit 

 from the parents, and from other adults they 

 associate with. I have found small birds shyer in 

 desert places, where the human form was altogether 

 strange to them, than in thickly-settled districts. 

 Large birds are actually shyer than the small ones, 

 although to the civilized or shooting man they seem 

 astonishingly tame where they have never been 



