SELF-DEVOTION OF A BIRD. 379 



into the air almost perpendicularly, to the height 

 of thirty or forty feet, with his legs hanging ; de- 

 scending, as he rose, by repeated jerks, as if highly 

 irritated, or, as is vulgarly said, u dancing mad." 

 All this noise and gesticulation, however, must be 

 attributed to his extreme affection for his mate 

 and young ; and when we consider the few young 

 produced at a time, and that seldom more than 

 once in the season, we can see the wisdom of Pro- 

 vidence very manifestly in having endowed him 

 with such ardency of feeling. l?he attention of 

 the intruder is thus withdrawn from the nest and 

 its precious contents to himself, and these extraor- 

 dinary manoeuvres are in themselves the very 

 means of his own preservation. A naturalist once 

 attempted to shoot the angry bird in the midst of 

 his mad aerial dance ; but he found himself com- 

 pletely baffled, and was obliged to employ an 

 Indian for that purpose, who did not succeed until 

 he had almost exhausted all his ingenuity. 



Perhaps the ingenuity to which parental affec- 

 tion will give rise in birds, during the period of 

 which we are now speaking the rearing of the 

 young and, indeed, previous to this time, is in 

 no instance so conspicuously manifested as in the 



