CHAPTER X. 



SHELTERING OF THE YOUNG. 



IN rearing tender song birds taken from their mo- 

 thers, as is frequently done, before they are fledged, 

 experience proves that warmth is no less indispen- 

 sable than food; exposure to cold during the night 

 frequently killing the most healthy nestlings. The 

 mother-birds, well aware of this, are equally assi- 

 duous in covering their chicks after they are hatched 

 as they had previously been while sitting on the eggs. 

 Among small birds (Sylvicolee, VIEILLOT), accord- 

 ingly, for several days after her brood has been 

 hatched, the mother seldom quits the nest, the male 

 providing the food necessary for her and the little 

 ones, who as yet require but a very small portion. 

 The wren, and other birds which build domed nests, 

 have this additional protection to prevent the dis- 

 sipation of their animal heat; and birds of prey, 

 pigeons, and crows have but a small number of 

 nestlings to shelter. 



In the case again of poultry, when the newly- 

 hatched birds can run about, the mothers have no 

 little trouble in sheltering them from cold, and, even 

 during the hottest weather, from rain, which proves 

 very injurious in consequence of the cold produced 

 by its evaporation. However much, also, we may ad- 

 mire the ingenuity of birds in some things, and their 

 anxious affection for their young, yet they exhibit in 

 other instances great apparent stupidity; and maternal 

 affection, so far from sharpening their faculties, seems 

 at first rather to blind them, and to cause them to 



