CONDUCT OF MARTINS. 385 



desertion, leave our country for warmer lands 

 about the middle of October. It is plain that to 

 remain with their young would result in a greater 

 number of deaths than to leave them and provide 

 for their own safety ; no good could therefore 

 possibly follow from the young ones being still 

 tended by their parents, for they would be 

 reared only to die Avhen the winter came. Of two 

 evils the less is chosen; and it has been wisely 

 ordained that the migrating impulse should at this 

 period overcome even the strength of parental love. 

 Let us then take compassion on the poor parents 

 of the bird species, and, viewing their case as our 

 own, let us see that it is only a stern and over- 

 coming impulse which leads to the commission of 

 an act apparently so cruel as the desertion of their 

 helpless progeny. 



Instances have, indeed, been related, which show 

 that the poor parents are extremely reluctant to 

 quit their offspring, and have actually tarried be- 

 hind the vast migrating armies, in order to wait 

 until they could be accompanied by their young. 

 " I have just met with a circumstance," observes 

 Gilbert White, " which furnishes an exception to 

 the whole tenor of my observations, ever since 

 c c 



