MENTAL POWERS OE BIRDS. 
277 
we learn from Herodotus, it was held sacred to the extent that 
whoever killed a hawk was put to death ;* so that it is possible 
the kestrel of the Lower Nile may have continued to enjoy a 
feeling of security up to the present day. The hooded crow is 
also very tame, as compared with its harassed brother in many 
other countries. The school-boy knows the effect produced by 
the report of his gun on many birds, and how other senses be- 
come sharpened in consequence ; to wit, perception, as evinced 
by the crow and magpie perceiving the dreaded implement of 
destruction long before it can be brought to bear on them. 
Many birds acquire fear slowly; others are naturally timid. All 
gallinaceous birds are more or less fearless in their primordial 
states ; and even partridges and grouse, only after weeks of con- 
stant persecution, acquire the alertness to enable them to be up 
and off before the sportsman gets within range. Even this les- 
son is forgotten during the close season. I was surprised both in 
the Himalayan and Canadian forests to find certain pheasants in 
the former and partridges in the latter quite fearless, more espe- 
cially in secluded districts where they had not been molested by 
man. Indeed, so indifferent of danger were they, that beyond 
flying from the ground into the nearest branch, they seemed quite 
regardless of our presence. It was, moreover, a common prac- 
tice with the first European settlers in many parts of America 
to knock the partridges off their perches by means of long wands. 
Then the only enemies of these birds were the sable and other 
martens, and the lynx, from which they escaped by simply fly- 
ing into the nearest tree ; however, as clearings were made, and 
the birds became more molested by man, they gradually took 
to longer flights, so that around the settlements it is somewhat 
difficult to shoot them. Birds that frequent mid-ocean islands, 
and have few enemies, are generally very tame. Such, however, 
as the grebes, guillemots, and awks, are low in the scale of orni- 
thic intelligence ; and probably on this account, and from its in- 
ability to fly, we might ascribe the extinction of the celebrated 
Northern Penguin or Grreat Awk, which may now be said to have 
disappeared, at all events from explored portions of the globe. 
Again, the beautiful feathers of the monal pheasant of the 
Himalayas and American crested-jay have been long in request 
to decorate the heads of the ladies of Europe and North America ; 
and, in consequence of constant persecution, both species have 
become so wild and wary, that in the case of the latter the 
denizens of the forest solitudes have inherited the timidity of 
their brethren of the settled districts. Here, no doubt, fear 
gradually attained has become a trait of character, seeing that 
* Euterpe,” ii. para. 65. The Ibis is also included ; it is now extinct 
in Egypt. 
