CHAPTER V. 
EEAR IN BIRDS. 
The statement that birds instinctively fear man is 
frequently met with in zoological works written 
since the Origin of Species appeared ; but almost 
the only reason — absolutely the only plausible 
reason, all the rest being mere supposition — given 
in support of such a notion is that birds in desert 
islands show at first no fear of man, but afterwards, 
finding him a dangerous neighbour, they become 
wild ; and their young also grow up wild. It is 
thus assumed that the habit acquired by the former 
has become hereditary in the latter — or, at all 
events, that in time it becomes hereditary. Instincts, 
which are few in number in any species, and practi- 
cally endure for ever, are not, presumably, acquired 
with such extraordinary facility. 
Birds become shy where persecuted, and the 
young, even when not disturbed, learn a shy habit 
from the parents, and from other adults they 
associate with. I have found small birds shyer in 
desert places, where the human form was altogether 
strange to them, than in thickly-settled districts. 
Large birds are actually shyer than the small ones, 
although to the civilized or shooting man they seem 
astonishingly tame where they have never been 
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