Fear in Birds. 89 



pigeons are excited to anger rather than fear, and, 

 puffing themselves up, snap and strike at an intruder 

 with their beaks. Other fledglings simply shrink 

 down in the nest or squat close on the ground, 

 their fear, apparently, being in proportion to. the 

 suddenness with which the strange animal or object 

 comes on them ; but, if the deadliest enemy ap- 

 proaches with slow caution, as snakes do — and 

 snakes must be very ancient enemies to birds — 

 there is no fear or suspicion shown, even when the 

 enemy is in full view and about to strike. This, it 

 will be understood, is when no warning-cry is 

 uttered by the parent bird. This shrinking, and, 

 in some cases, hiding from an object coming swiftly 

 towards them, is the "wildness" of young birds, 

 which, Darwin says again, is greater in wild than 

 in- domestic species. Of the extreme tameness of 

 the young rhea I have already spoken ; I have also 

 observed young tinamous, plovers, coots, &c, 

 hatched by fowls, and found them as incapable of 

 distinguishing friend from foe as the young of 

 domestic birds. The only difference between the 

 young of wild and tame is that the former are, as a 

 rule, much more sprightly and active. But there 

 are many exceptions ; and if this greater alertness 

 and activity is what is meant by " wildness," then 

 the young of some wild birds — rhea, crested screamer, 

 &c. — are actually much tamer than our newly- 

 hatched chickens and ducklings. 



To return to what may be seen in nestling birds. 

 "When very young, and before their education has 

 well begun, if quietly approached and touched, they 

 open their bills and take food as readily from a man 



