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Michael's avatar

I don't think I could resist feeding the striped mouse! The sand grouse while not so winsome displays astonishing courtesy and cooperation. I wonder if anyone has done a book.ob them?

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Walter Tschinkel's avatar

You'd have to be a joyless person not to feed the mouse. As for the politeness of the sand grouse, we just spent a week among french people on a cruise, and I can assure you, the concept of a line, or any other mode of organization for fairness, did not rise to a recognizable level. The rule was to butt in wherever and whenever you could, many times with physical interference tactics. No sand grouse, these!

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Michael's avatar

I don't want to pass along perhaps inaccurate stereotypes, but some groups are not famed for their courtesy. One wonders why we are considered a social species! At least you escaped the cruise without contracting Norovirus!

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Dennis Howard's avatar

Your observations are very interesting. Do you think that if the water supply was more readily available to the grouse, they might have dispensed with their deference to one another?

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Heather Wall's avatar

If only we humans could be more polite, the more of us there are...

And was that a large weaverbird nest in the tree in the background?

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Walter Tschinkel's avatar

Yes, it was indeed a large weaverbird nest. I wrote an earlier essay that included these, but I think you already found it: https://waltertschinkel.substack.com/p/fabric

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Dennis Howard's avatar

That was a very productive coffee break.

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Walter Tschinkel's avatar

Sadly, the coffee was mediocre.

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