The mind of a bird

In studying the lives of birds by methods similar to those discussed in this book, we are continuously confronted by the difficult problem of interpreting the bird behaviour which we observe. In the fields we see birds behaving in a great variety of ways, many of which are conditioned by factors in the external world which we can see and record, just as we do the actions of the birds. Heat and cold, danger, hunger, the presence of other birds, or animals, or types of herbage ; all these are parts of the general environment of birds and both separately and together they will dictate in varying degree the way birds behave. But the general environment of birds is in large measure also the environment of man, for birds are warm blooded animals which breathe air as we do, are affected by heat, cold, thirst, hunger and a host of similar factors, and in some cases, may die from attacks of bacilli and germs which will also kill us. So when we see birds panting on a hot day, as they do when brooding on exposed nests, we are apt to conclude that they are. " feeling the heat " just as we do, or we may say that in winter, the bird we pick up barely alive after a prolonged frost is " faint from hunger." Probably in these specific instances we may not be far wrong in our description, but we are really on the edge of a dangerous slope, for we have started to interpret the reactions of birds in terms of our own experiences. Let us move on from the purely physical side of the bird's life to its emotional side, still describing its actions in terms of our own experience. Immediately, we begin to introduce words like love, affection, self-sacrifice, parental duty and so on. We may say that the cock-bird is " glad to see the hen return " ; that she shows her pleasure by shimmering her wings ; that she may admire the cock's fine plumage colours, and that he in return shows her great affection and love. All these words arc used here to denote a state of mind or....