Abstract
IF it is of any importance to the question I may state that I have seen the following birds “tower:”—common snipe, fieldfare, wood-pigeon, pheasant, partridge, common Australian duck (Anas superciliosa), large Australian white cockatoo, Australian Nankeen night heron, and Australian piping crow. I have shot many thousands of Australian duck, and towering has occurred among them pretty frequently. In one case, the notes of which I have, the duck began to rise almost immediately, and rose to a great height. I was indoctrinated in the cerebral injury hypothesis, but I soon found that this was untenable, for I made a habit of plucking and examining the heads of all towering birds which I could recover, and there were some among them with no wound whatever on the head. One such instance would have been sufficient to dispose of the hypothesis; but I was unable to substitute another for it. The explanation given by Mr. Romanes meets the conditions as far as they have come under my observations.
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N., A. [Letters to Editor]. Nature 15, 199 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/015199b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/015199b0
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