fashion entirely different from that of their 

 parents; the little goldfinch of New Eng- 

 land that win build a false bottom to her 

 nes j. fo cover U p th e e gg O f a cow-bird that 

 has been left to hatch among her own; the 

 grouse that near the dwellings of men are 

 so much wilder and keener than their breth- 

 ren of the wilderness; the swallows that 

 adopt the chimneys and barns of civilization 

 instead of the hollow trees and clay banks 

 of their native woods, all these and a score 

 of others show how readily instinct is modi- 

 fied among the birds, and how the young 

 are taught a wisdom that their forefathers 

 never knew. Nevertheless it is true, I think, 

 that instincts are generally sharper with them 

 than with animals, and the following cases 

 suggest all the more strongly that we must 

 look beyond instinct to training and indi- 

 vidual discovery to account for many things 

 among the feathered folk. 



The most wonderful bit of bird surgery 

 that has ever come to my attention is that 

 of the woodcock that set his broken leg in 

 a clay cast, as related in a previous chapter ; 



