Bird Notes | Nature


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IN the May number of The Zoologist Mr. J. M. Dewar discusses the evolutions performed by flocks of certain kinds of wading birds of the family Charadriidæ. These evolutions, which are based


on a simple type common to the whole family, but frequently comprise specialised additions, are believed by the author to be of a defensive and protective nature, the essential form of


movement being an imitation of the sea-spray. “When the flock is large the movements are often sectional, and what seems to be a succession of waves passing through an extended flock is in


many cases an extremely quick repetition of the simpler form of the evolutions by sections. The ‘sheet-movements’ which provide much of the spectacular display are rendered possible by the


same circumstance, and generally grow out of the simpler form.... In other words, one may say the simpler evolutions are imitative in character and protective in purpose; in the complex


evolutions the simpler imitative movements are partially hidden by the development of a wealth of movement which is still protective in purpose, but which, as regards character, is incapable


at present of a simple and comprehensive explanation.”


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