178 THE PSYCHICAL KINSHIP 



featherless ones would only treat them with half 

 the consideration they merit. 



The love of a bird for the treasures of her nest 

 is one of the most beautiful things of this world. 

 Mother-like, the parent bird will do anything 

 almost for the sake of her little ones. Who has 

 not seen the kildeer strive with all the tact of her 

 clever little soul to allure some big giant of a 

 human being, who has wandered into her neigh- 

 bourhood, away from her nest of precious young ? 

 Many a time as a boy on the farm I have followed 

 one of these birds limping and tumbling and 

 fluttering along on the ground a few feet ahead of 

 me, utterly disabled, as I supposed, but always 

 managing to keep just a little beyond the reach of 

 my eager hands. And when the artful mother 

 has led me far from the sacred spot where lay all 

 there was in this world to her, how triumphantly 

 she has lifted herself on her unharmed wings and, 

 to my utter astonishment, sailed away. The 

 partridge and the mourning-dove are, if possible, 

 even more artful in their acting than the kildeer. 

 After I became a large boy and had been told the 

 meaning of these exhibitions by parent birds, I 

 often followed the mourning-dove, thinking the 

 bird must be really wounded after all, so perfectly 

 did it pretend. But the cunning of the kildeer is 

 not confined to luring one away from the nest. 

 If by some accident one finds her nest (and the 

 nest is so cleverly concealed that, if it is discovered 

 at all, it will be by pure accident), the resourceful 

 mother is ready with other expedients to outwit 



