REARING OF YOUNG. 365 



our perceptions they seem to lose nothing in the 

 absence of a parent of their own species ; their food 

 is as readily searched for and recognised as though 

 they had been instructed by the most tender and 

 anxious parent ; and when they arrive at maturity 

 such birds are not to be recognised from a brood 

 which has had the advantage of parental care and 

 intelligence. There is no difficulty in understand- 

 ing this, inexplicable as it may appear. The 

 necessary knowledge required by the brute crea- 

 tion generally has been given to them as a part 

 of their being by Him who gave the life itself; 

 it is independent generally of parental instruction, 

 although the latter may be often superadded to it; 

 and when such is the case, it proves unquestion- 

 ably the more valuable to the animal. This 

 necessary knowledge is instinct. The application 

 of several of these remarks must, however, in the 

 earliest days of a bird's life be confined to that 

 division of birds to which allusion has been before 

 made namely, birds which when excluded from 

 the shell can run about, see, and pick up their own 

 proper food. The young of the other division are 

 so entirely dependent on parental care during their 

 infancy as to perish if these attentions are re- 



