920. 



Moffat.- ro/r)7/r5 of Birds. 



49 



To our ( vrs, it is li.'irdly conspi( nous enough when llie bird 

 is Hying to act as an alarm-signal to her comrades ; but 

 as the similarly-situated yellow patch of the (ioldfmch 

 clearly does serve that purpose, I think the Jay may unfurl 

 her little blue ffag also as a warning — a supplemental 

 warning to the one she certainly gives at the same time 

 with the white patch on her back— to her kinsfolk and 

 near friends. The Magpie makes herself so conspicuous 

 at all times — roosting at night preferentially in bare trees 

 rather than under cover of foliage — that I have no doubt 

 her bold colouring has a warning effect on enemies. She 

 is said to be a favourite prey of the Peregrine Falcon (so 

 Thompson says in his " Natural History of Ireland "), but 

 if the Peregrine is the only bird that molests her she may 

 well display her bright tints to good advertising purpose 

 in most of her woodland resorts. The colours of the 

 Hooded Crow have a still more obvious warning value, for 

 it seems to be the only bird in our fauna which Owls and 

 Haw^ks, how^ever hungry, utterly refuse to eat. One 

 instance more. The cock and hen Robin are fighters all 

 the year round ; for every Robin in winter keeps a separate 

 feeding area to himself or herself in which no other Robin 

 of either sex is permitted to set foot. So, in the case of 

 this bird, although its chief battles are wdth its own species, 

 the hen wears the same bright red breast as the cock, not 

 so much, I am afraid, as a sign that she will fight by his 

 side in spring, as by way of advertising her quite equal 

 readiness to hght against him or any other bird of the 

 Robin species that trespasses on her soil in the autumn or 

 winter months. 



I am sorry if I have given our feathered friends too bad 

 a character for pugnacity in this attempt to trace a 

 connection between their plumage and their habits. But 

 it is only fair to remember that one of the best ways of 

 helping towards the preservation of peace is to be well 

 prepared for war, and to let your state of preparedness be 

 generally known. And this I take to be the principal 

 function of the bright colours of birds. 



Pu])Iin. 



