. Birds in town & village, by . espon-sible young cow. One morning when the cows were in the field,some herring-gulls drifted by and a few of themremained circling about above the field. I threw 274 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE out a piece of bread, and a troop of starlingsrushed to it, and one of the gulls dropped downand took possession of it, but had scarcely begantearing at it when two more gulls dropped downand the first bird, lifting his wings began scream-ing Hands off I at the others, and the others,also raising their wings, screamed their wailingscreams in reply. The young
. Birds in town & village, by . espon-sible young cow. One morning when the cows were in the field,some herring-gulls drifted by and a few of themremained circling about above the field. I threw 274 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE out a piece of bread, and a troop of starlingsrushed to it, and one of the gulls dropped downand took possession of it, but had scarcely begantearing at it when two more gulls dropped downand the first bird, lifting his wings began scream-ing Hands off I at the others, and the others,also raising their wings, screamed their wailingscreams in reply. The young cow, attracted bythe noise, gazed at them for a few moments, thenall at once putting her head down furiouslycharged them. The three gulls rose up simul-taneously and floated over her and then away,leaving her standing on the spot, shaking her headin anger and disgust at their escape. A rhinoceroscharging a ball of thistledown or a soap-bubble,and causing it to float away with the wind itcreated, would not have been a more II DO STARLINGS PAIR FOR LIFE? From my boyhood, when I first began to ob-serve birds, I started with the imbibed notion thatthose which paired for life were the rare excep-tions—the dove that rhymed with love, the eagle,and perhaps half a dozen more. Who, for in-stance, would imagine that the sexes could befaithful in parasitical species like the cuckoo ofEurope and the cow-birds of America ? Yet evenas a boy I made the discovery that an Argentinecow-bird that lays its eggs in the nests of otherspecies, does actually pair for life; and so effec-tually mated is it, that on no day and no seasonof the year will you see a male without his female:if he flies she flies with him and feeds and drinkswith him, and when he perches she perches athis side, and he never utters a sound but a re-sponsive sound immediately falls from her devotedbeak. 275 276 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE Again, it may seem unlikely that there can bepairing for life in speci
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1920
