Within closely related bird kinds, such as cushats, individuals or subgroups may adopt different winter strategies, with some hiding and others migrating at the same time as swallows.
By Aristotle, from History of Animals
Key Arguments
- He explicitly states intraspecific variation in strategy: "Some cushats hide; others, instead of hiding, migrate at the same time as the swallow."
- This shows that even within one named kind there is not a single, fixed response to season but an alternative between concealment and migration synchronized with another migratory species (the swallow).
Source Quotes
The case of the turtledove is the most notorious of all, for we would defy any one to assert that he had anywhere seen a turtle-dove in winter-time; at the beginning of the hiding time it is exceedingly plump, and during this period it moults, but retains its plumpness. Some cushats hide; others, instead of hiding, migrate at the same time as the swallow. The thrush and the starling hide; and of birds with crooked talons
Key Concepts
- Some cushats hide; others, instead of hiding, migrate at the same time as the swallow.
Context
Book VIII, section 16, following the description of turtle‑dove hiding, where Aristotle notes that cushats show both hiding and migratory behaviors, refining his account of avian responses to seasonal change.