BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
65 
of species the parent bird flits and flutters round 
the intruder, uttering sounds of distress. Fre- 
quently the bird exhibits its agitation not only 
by these cries and restless motions, but by the 
drooping of the wings and tail — the action observed 
in a bird when hurt or sick or oppressed with 
heat. These languishing signs are common to a 
great many species after the young have been 
hatched, the period when the parental solicitude 
is most intense. In several species which I have 
observed in South America the languishing is 
more marked. There are no sorrowful cries and 
restless movements; the bird sits with hanging 
wings and tail, gasping for breath with open bill — 
in appearance a greatly sufiering bird. In some 
cases of this description the bird, if it moves at 
all, hops or flutters from a higher to a lower branch, 
and, as if sick or wounded, seems about to sink to 
the ground. In still others the bird actually does 
drop to the ground, then, feebly flapping its wings, 
rises again with great effort. From this last form 
it is but a step to the more highly developed and 
complex instinct of the bird that sinks to the earth 
and flutters painfully away, gasping, and seemingly 
incapable of flight. 
It would be a great mistake to suppose that the 
bird when fluttering on the ground to lead an 
enemy from the neighbourhood of its nest is in 
F 
