BIRDS AS GUARDIANS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 96, 27 April 1929, Page 20

BIRDS AS GUARDIANS

DEALING WITH ENEMIES

Thcro is yet much to bo learnt about the protective habits of birds aud-a'n-i imals. • Why does .the .'blackbird; keep silent when alone if danger approaches, and;yet screaim out in warning'at the same danger should there bo rabbits feeding near? (writes Basil Barham in .the London "Daily Telegraph"). Tits and blackbirds seem to have constituted themselves the guardians of^ the little animals of tho woods, and twitter and scream when a hawk or owl hovers overhead. If a weasel is creeping along the hedgerow, tits will always go out of their way to warn mice of his coming. They have oven been known to flock together and sally out to drive a weasel away from tho young mice or other small animals. Starlings, too, will warn field mice and rabbits of the approach of a cat or an owl, although they will remain contemptuously silent if no small bird or animal is near the marauder. Blackbirds will keep silent when an owl flies near them, but if a young rabbit_ or mouse ih near they will scream excitedly until it is out of danger. ,1. have heard the jackdaw in Northumberland — there are thousands along the line of tho Great Wall—doing the same tiling. The curlew sends out a warning: to every living thing within hearing as soon as anyone draws near, and- even tho little stone.chat, instead of flying away to safety as soon as you approach, will remain perched on thistle, stack, or stone wall until- you,can almost touch hiik, sounding an alarm. , They used to declare? in Northumberland that he does it to warn the "Little Green People' '—a childish belief, most people nowadays would say, and one out of keeping with the modern spirit that has no use for fairies. But it is a pretty idea. Have the scientists anything to offer us in its place? ..' ■