Tegetmeier gives some good examples. He states that if pigeons are
reared exclusively with small grain, as wheat or barley, they will
starve before eating beans. But when they are thus starving, if a
bean-eating pigeon is put among them, they follow its example, and
thereafter adopt the habit. So fowls sometimes refuse to eat maize, but
on seeing others eat it, they do the same and become excessively fond of
it. Many persons have found that their yellow crocuses were eaten by
sparrows, while the blue, purple, and white coloured varieties were left
untouched; but Mr. Tegetmeier, who grows only these latter colours,
found that after two years the sparrows began to attack them, and
thereafter destroyed them quite as readily as the yellow ones; and he
believes it was merely because some bolder sparrow than the rest set the
example. On this subject Mr. Charles C. Abbott well remarks: "In
studying the habits of our American birds--and I suppose it is true of
birds everywhere--it must at all times be remembered that there is less
stability in the habits of birds than is usually supposed; and no
account of the habits of any one species will exactly detail the various
features of its habits as they really are, in every portion of the
territory it inhabits.
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