212 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



CHAPTER XII. 



TRAINING OP YOUNG BIRDS BY THEIR PARENTS. 



BY far the greater number of the actions of animals 

 appear to be performed without previous instruction, in 

 a manner which being inexplicable in the present state 

 of knowledge, is designated by the terms instinct 

 and instinctive, meaning that the motives to any 

 particular movement or action, as well as the mode 

 of execution, originate in the animal spontaneously, 

 without the series of reasoning, or thinking arid 

 determining, which we employ in similar cases. 

 Thus a frog is said to swim instinctively in water ; 

 that is, it requires no training, no instruction in the 

 art of swimming, no more than we do in the process 

 of breathing ; and the same may be said with regard 

 to the swimming of most other animals, even those 

 least accustomed to water, few being unable to swim 

 except man, who requires training and instruction 

 for that purpose. It is not our design to enter here 

 upon the difficult subject of instinct^ farther than to 

 point out a few of the acquired actions of birds, 

 originating either in the express instruction or imi- 

 tation of their parents. 



With respect to the eagle, which is the most cele- 

 brated from the remotest antiquity for instructing 

 its young, we are told by Moses, that she " stirreth 

 up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth 

 abroad her wings, and taketh them and beareth them 

 on her wings *.*' Aristotle adds, that the young 

 are not permitted to leave the nest prematurely, and 

 * Deuteronomy, xxxii. 11. 



