THE RELIGION OF NATURE 



them in life with the totally wrong impression that 

 small birds and other animals act and think and 

 talk to each other like human beings. 



Such notions, acquired in the nursery, remain at 

 the back of one's mind all the rest of one's life: 

 and it is only by a resolute effort of reason that 

 one can force one's self to see nothing " un- 

 natural " in the conduct of a small bird which takes 

 no notice of its own children, sprawling and starv- 

 ing slowly by the side of its nest, while it stuffs 

 the solitary young cuckoo who threw them out. 



To us this seems " unnatural," because it is 

 contrary to our nature we being well able to 

 succor our infants when they get into trouble-- 

 but if we recognize the truth, that the birds have 

 not human sentiments, this abandonment of their 

 unlucky young dovetails admirably into the 

 scheme of nature. Yet, so far as it concerns the 

 young small birds thrown out by young cuckoos, 

 it is one of " nature's mistakes." As with the gray 

 moths which " hide " on black palings, nature has 

 not yet been able to teach the small birds to dis- 

 criminate. The parasitic habits of the cuckoo are 

 too new for instinctive habits of defense to have 

 been acquired yet by its victims. 



The day may yet come when small birds, on 

 finding a struggle going on in their nest, will 

 throw out the aggressor and so save their own 

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