BIRDS AND MAN 43 



approach, as at the appearance of a cat, and the 

 nest would perhaps have been saved. No doubt 

 the result of such an accident would be the 

 unsettling of an acquired habit, the return to the 

 usual suspicious attitude. 



Birds are able sometimes to discriminate 

 between protectors and persecutors, but seldom 

 very well I should imagine ; they do not view 

 the face only, but the whole form, and our 

 frequent change of dress must make it difficult 

 for them to distinguish the individuals they 

 know and trust from strangers. Even a dog is 

 occasionally at fault when his master, last seen in 

 black and grey suit, reappears in straw hat and 

 flannels. 



In a bird's relations with other mammals there 

 is no room for doubt or confusion ; each con- 

 sistently acts after its kind ; once hostile, always 

 hostile ; and if once seen to be harmless, then to 

 be trusted for ever. The fox must always be 

 feared and detested ; his disposition, like his 

 sharp nose and red coat, is unchangeable ; so, 

 too, with the cat, stoat, weasel, etc. On the 

 other hand, in the presence of herbivorous 

 mammals, birds show no sign of suspicion ; they 



