FEEDING-HABITS OF THE DUNLIN. 



5 



would not be hindered by consideration of the first-comer, 

 because the Dunlin would have no reason to expect opposition ; 

 as far as can be seen, Dunlins do not fight with one another or 

 display resentment) the Dunlin goes forward unable, unless some 

 potent interruption overturns the state of its mind, to receive 

 impressions, and incapable of performing actions other than 

 those called into being by the one idea. It is engaged with 

 nothing but the capture of the worm, and when the worm is 

 swallowed the incident is forgotten. The first Dunlin is in a 

 similar condition. Already occupied and excited by the idea of 

 securing the worm, it becomes frantic when the worm resists 

 extraction unduly, and in such a state it is not able to consider 

 what the new-comer is going to do. It may continue to tug at 

 the worm as if nothing had happened, or it may be driven away 

 temporarily paralyzed by the shock of the second Dunlin's 

 approach. Then the idea of securing the worm, dissipated for 

 a moment by the fresh impression, returns with absorbing force, 

 and the Dunlin goes back to the worm as if no other bird was 

 there. 



Now a Curlew, to take an example in similar circumstances, 

 would never think twice of questioning the right of an intruder, 

 but then the Curlew is sedate in its ways, and for a bird its mind 

 is fairly well balanced. The Dunlin, on the contrary, is a 

 nervous, feverishly energetic, excitable bird, and the thread which 

 connects its reason and consciousness with its bodily functions is 

 slender and easily cut. A lack of self-control may be assumed 

 for another reason. The Dunlin is one of those waders which are 

 liable to " bobbing " — that peculiar, rhythmical, backward jerk of 

 the head and body, or of the head alone — in moments of excite- 

 ment from anxiety, fear, and other causes. During eack jerk 

 and sometimes during the series the eyes have a dull and 

 vacant expression, but the observer must be very near to see 

 this. 



It may be said that the frantic excitement of the Dunlin is 

 due to fear of robbery — that its continued endeavour to secure 

 the worm is the feeble expression of its resentment. On the 

 surface this explanation is satisfactory, but if we try to analyse 

 the actions by themselves, and in relation to the general activi- 

 ties of the bird, and to picture what is going on within the skull, 



