ro8 Of the FASCINATING FACULTY 



In the ftudy of natural hiftory, i am always happy to 

 difcover new inflances of the wifdom of providence, and 

 new proofs of the ftrong affections of animals. And for 

 the difcovery of fuch inftances uf wifdom, and fuch proofs 

 of affe£tion, the contemplation of nature is an ample 

 field. In the indances now before us, the ftrength of 

 the infl;in(9; of affeclion in birds is ilhiftrated, in aftriking 

 point of view ; and 1 cannot help obferving, that I feel 

 an high degree of pleafure in being able to do away, in 

 fome meafure at leaft, a prejudice, not lefs extenfive than 

 it is unfounded, by bearing my {lender teftnnony in fa- 

 vour of the exiftence and the powerful dominion of a 

 benevolent principle in animals. 



The following fadt was communicated to me, fome 

 time fince, by our prefident, Mr. Rittcnhoufe. I think, 

 it ftrikingly illuftrates and confirms the fyftem which 

 I have been endeavouring to eftablifh. I relate it, 

 therefore, with pleafure, and the more fo, as I have 

 no doubt, that the authority of a cautious and enlighten- 

 ed philofopher will greatly contribute to the deilrudtion 

 of a fuperftitious notion which difgraces the page of natu- 

 ral hiftory. 



Some years fmce, this ingenious gentleman was in- 

 duced to fuppofe, from the peculiar melancholy cry of 

 a red-winged-maize-thief*, that a fnake was at no great 

 diftance from it, and that the bird was in diftrefs. He 

 threw^ a ftone at the place from which the cry proceeded, 

 which had the effect of driving the bird away. The 

 poor animal, however, immediately returned to the fame 

 fpot. Mr. Rittenhoufe now went to the place where 

 the bird alighted, and, to his great aftonifliment, he 

 found it perched upon the back of a large black-fnake, 



* Coramonly called, in Pennfylvania, the Swamp- Black-bird. It is the 

 ©riolus phoeniceus of lannxus. 



4 which 



