12 



A HISTORY OF 



human labour. Some birds, which have only 

 the serpent to fear, build their nests depend- 

 ing- from the end of a small bough, and form 

 the entrance from below ; being thus secured 

 either from the serpent or the monkey tribes. 

 But all the little birds which live upon fruits 

 and corn, and that are too often unwelcome 

 intruders upon the fruits of human industry, 

 in making their nests, use every precaution 

 to conceal them from man. On the other 

 hand, the great birds remote from human so- 

 ciety, use every precaution to render theirs 

 inaccessible to wild beasts or vermin. 



Nothing can exceed the patience of birds 

 while hatching ; neither the calls of hunger, 

 nor the near approach of danger, can drive 

 them from the nest. They are often fat upon 

 beginning to sit, yet before incubation is over, 

 the female is usually wasted to skin and bone. 

 Ravens and crows, while the females are sit- 

 ting, take care to provide them with food ; 

 and this in great abundance. But it is differ- 

 ent with most of the smaller kinds ; during 

 the whole time, the male sits near his mate 

 upon some tree, and soothes her by his sing- 

 ing ; and often when she is tired takes her 

 place and patiently continues upon the nest 

 till she returns. Sometimes, however, the 

 eggs acquire a degree of heat too much for the 

 purposes of hatching ; in such cases, the hen 

 leaves them to cool a little, and then returns 

 to sit with her usual perseverance and plea- 

 sure. 



So great is the power of instinct, in animals 

 of this class, that they seem driven from one 

 appetite to another, and continue almost pas- 

 sive under its influence. Reason we cannot 

 call it, since the first dictates of that principle 

 would be self-preservation : " Take a brute," 

 says Addison, " out of his instinct, and you 

 find him wholly deprived of understanding. 

 With what caution," continues he, "does the 

 hen provide herself with a nest in places unfre- 

 quented, and free from noise and disturbance! 

 When she has laid her eggs in such a man- 

 ner that she can cover them, what care does 

 she take in turning them frequently, that all 

 parts may partake of the vital warmth ! When 

 she leaves them, to provide for her necessary 

 sustenance, how punctually does she return 

 before they have time to cool, and become in- 

 capable of producing an animal ! In the sum- 

 mer you see her giving herself greater free- 

 doms, and quitting her care for above two 



ble paste. Other birds whose nests are tempered by 

 cement produced by a glutinous matter which the bird 

 secretes and mixes with saliva, are, with the Java swal- 

 low, classed as "cementers." The "dome-builders" 

 include several of our most familiar birds- as the 

 magpie, the wren, the sparrow. Lastly come birds 

 which build no nest at all, but deposit their eggs in the 

 oest of some other bird. 



hours together : but in winter, when the ri- 

 gour of the season would chill the principles 

 of life, and destroy the young one, she grows 

 more assiduous in her attendance, and stays 

 away but half the time. When the birth ap- 

 proaches, with how much nicety and attention 

 does she help the chick to break the prison ! 

 not to take notice of her covering it from the 

 injuries of the weather, providing it with pro- 

 per nourishment, and teaching it to help it- 

 self; nor to mention her forsaking the nest, if, 

 after the usual time of reckoning, the young 

 one does not make its appearance. A chemi- 

 cal operation could not be followed with great- 

 er art or diligence than is seen in the hatching 

 a chick, though there are many birds that 

 show an infinitely greater sagacity : yet at the 

 same time the hen, that has all this seeming 

 ingenuity, (which is indeed absolutely neces- 

 sary for the propagation of the species,) con- 

 sidered in other respects, is without the least 

 glimmerings of thought or common sense : she 

 mistakes a piece of chalk for an egg, and sits 

 upon it in the same manner ; she is insensible 

 of any increase or diminution in the number 

 of those she lays ; she does not distinguish 

 between her own, and those of another spe- 

 cies ; and when the birth appears of never so 

 different a bird, will cherish it for her own. 

 A hen, followed by a brood of ducks, shall 

 stand affrighted at the edge of the poud trem- 

 bling for the fate of her young, which she 

 sees venturing into so dangerous an element. 

 As the different principle which acts in these 

 different animals cannot be termed reason, so 

 when we call it instinct, we mean something 

 we have no knowledge of. It appears to me 

 the immediate direction of Providence ; and 

 such an operation of the Supreme Being, aa 

 that which determines all the portions of mat- 

 ter to their proper centres." 



The production of the young, as was said, 

 seems to be the great era of a bird's hap- 

 piness. Nothing can at that time exceed its 

 spirit and industry : the most timid becomes 

 courageous in the defence of its young. Birds 

 of the rapacious kind, at this season, become 

 more than usually fierce and active. They 

 carry their prey, yet throbbing with life, to 

 the nest, and early accustom their young to 

 habits of slaughter and cruelty. Nor are 

 those of milder natures less busily employed ; 

 the little birds then discontinue their singing, 

 taken up with more important pursuits of com- 

 mon subsistence. 1 



1 There cannot be any question of the immense number 

 of insects required by birds during the breeding season. 

 It is stated by Bingly, that a pair of small American 

 birds, conjectured to be the house-wren, were observed to 

 leave the nest and return with insects from forty to sixty 

 times in an hour, and that in one particular hour, they 

 carried food no fywer than seventy-one times. In this 



