54 THE WHALE THE BLACKBIRD. 



death, is said to attend to her young one with 

 the utmost anxiety to the last moment of her 

 life. If the young whale has been wounded by 

 the harpoon, after the mother has eluded it, the 

 latter then becomes an easy prey to the whalers, 

 as it is well known that nothing will induce her 

 to desert her offspring: so strong is female af- 

 fection. 



I am furnished with another instance of this 

 in my immediate neighbourhood. A number of 

 school-boys, attended by their master, were wan- 

 dering about the Great Park of Windsor, when 

 one of them discovered a Black-bird's nest, with 

 young ones in it, at some distance beyond the top 

 of the Long Walk. He immediately made prize 

 of it, and was conveying it homewards, when the 

 cries of their young were heard by the old birds. 

 Notwithstanding the presence and noise of so 

 many boys, they did not desert their helpless off- 

 spring, but kept near them, for a distance of about 

 three miles, flying from tree to tree, and uttering 

 those distressed and wailing notes which are so 

 peculiar in the black-bird. This circumstance in- 

 duced the boy to place the young birds in a cage, 

 and he hung it outside of the house, which was 

 close to the town of Windsor. Here they were 

 fed regularly by their parents. As they grew up, 

 the boy sold first one and then another, as he 

 was able to procure customers for them, until 



