202 NATUE-AL THEOLOGY. 



bird, observation., or instruction, or tradition might. Now 

 if' it be true tliat a couple of sparrows, brought up from the 

 first in a state of separation from all other bh'ds, would build 

 their nest, and brood upon their eggs, then there is an end 

 of this solution. What can be the traditionary knowledge 

 of a chicken hatched in an oven ? 



Of young birds taken in their nests, a few species breed 

 when kept in cag3s ; and they which do so, build their nests 

 nearly in the same manner as in the wild state, and sit upon 

 their eggs. This is sufficient to prove an instmct, without 

 having recourse to experiments upon birds hatched by artifi- 

 cial heat, and deprived from their birth of all communica- 

 tion with their species ; for we can hardly bring ourselves 

 to believe that the parent bird informed her unfledged pupil 

 of the history of her gestation, her timely preparation of a 

 nest, her exclusion of the eggs, her long incubation, and of 

 the joyful eruption at last of her expected ofispring ; all 

 which the bird in the cage must have learnt in her infancy, 

 if we resolve her conduct into institution. 



Unless we will rather suppose that she remembers her 

 own escape from the e^g, had attentively observed the con- 

 formation of the nest in which she was rmrtured, and had 

 treasured up her remarks for future imitation ; which is not 

 only extremely improbable — for who that sees a brood o/ 

 callow birds in their nest can believe that they are taking a 

 plan of their habitation ? — but leaves unaccounted for one 

 principal part of the difficulty, " the preparation of the nest 

 before the laying of the eg^.'' This she could not gain from 

 observation in her infancy. 



It is remarkable also, that the hen sits upon eggs which 

 she has laid without any communication with the male, 

 and which are therefore necessarily unfruitful. That secret 

 she is not let into. Yet if incubation had been a subject of 

 instruction or of tradition, it should seem that this distinction 

 would have formed part of the lesson ; whereas the instinct of 

 nature is calculated for a state of nature — the exception here 



