PROGRESS IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 



171 



their laws and traditions, and preserve a sort of historical con- 

 tinuity by which past and present are bound together in a certain 

 orderly sequence. Bee-hives which suffer from over-population 

 rear a queen and send forth with her a swarm of emigrants to 

 colonize, and the relations of the mother-hive to her colonies are 

 known to be much closer and more cordial than those w^hich she 

 sustains to apian communities with w^hich she has no genetic con- 

 nection. Here the ties of kinship are as strong and clearly recog- 

 nized as they are between consanguineous tribes of men. 



Again, the statement that animal habits are fixed, and human 

 customs variable and improvable, is true only to a very limited 

 extent. Closer observation has shown the latter to be more stable 

 and the former more mutable than is generally imagined, espe- 

 cially if we compare the highest orders of animals with the low- 

 est human tribes. In primitive society and among savage races 

 customs remain the same for countless generations, and seem to 

 be quite as persistent and incapable of change as animal instincts. 



Not only do animals, often in the course of a comparatively 

 short period, undergo marvelous transformations both of mind 

 and body, through the force of natural selection or by careful in- 

 terbreeding, but they are also led by circumstances and through 

 forethought to make conscious and intentional changes in their 

 manner of life. 



It is curious to note the variety of characteristics distinguish- 

 ing members of the same family or genus. Thus, the European 

 cuckoo lays her eggs in the nests of other birds, and leads the life 

 of a shiftless parasite and shameless polyandrous vagabond. The 

 American cuckoo, on the contrary, has not yet learned to shirk 

 her maternal duties and domestic responsibilities, but, like an hon- 

 est and thrifty housewife and conscientious mother, hatches her 

 own eggs and rears her own young. The South African and Aus- 

 tralasian representatives of the cuculincB follow, in this respect, the 

 habits of the European bird. There is also a species of moloihrus, 

 which sometimes begins but seldom finishes a nest, like the hy- 

 pothetical man in the parable, who would fain build without first 

 sitting down to count the cost. She is seized occasionally with a 

 spasm of virtuous endeavor in this direction, but soon yields to 

 the greater comfort and convenience of imposing upon others the 

 burden of brooding and nurturing her offspring. Evidently she 

 turns the matter over in her mind, and, like Rousseau, reasons 

 herself into the belief that it is better not to assume any family 

 cares, but to cast. her children as foundlings upon the bosom of 

 public charity. " There are the goldfinches, thrushes, fly-catchers, 

 cardinal grossbeaks, and other fussy motherly fowl," she seems to 

 say, " willing enough to undertake the charge ; why not gratify 

 their low philoprogenitive passion, and thus enable me to devote 



