SOME POPULAR ERRORS 



young. But there is no sign of the fortunate 

 beginning of such a habit yet, although it is 

 evident from the partly formed habit of the cuckoo 

 to lay eggs resembling those of small birds, that 

 the latter are beginning to defend themselves a 

 little; for the cuckoo would not have acquired 

 this peculiar power, if the small birds accepted the 

 strange egg always without question. Once the 

 egg is hatched, however, they can still only act 

 upon nature's general principle that it is a waste 

 of time and labor, which might be used in the 

 interest of the race, to attempt to succor a newly- 

 hatched bird which has fallen out of the nest. 



Thus nature seems to us to be at war with 

 " herself " taking advantage in the cuckoo of 

 " her " own defective rule in the matter of the 

 small birds' parental instincts and it is a fruitful 

 source of error in our views of the world around us 

 that we will persist in thus regarding " nature " 

 as a sort of personage an uncanonical Providence 

 who arranges things at large for the good of 

 the greatest number. What we should realize is 

 that nature is different and separate in every liv- 

 ing thing. A creature may become extinct because 

 its nature is not up-to-date ; and in the matter of 

 the cuckoo and the small birds, it is quite possible 

 that in the long run the small birds will win and 

 the cuckoo will become extinct, though perhaps 



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