256 LOVE OF OFFSPRING IN BIRDS. 



becomes again a shy and wild creature, abandons 

 our homesteads, and returns to its solitudes and 

 heaths. 



The extraordinary change of character which 

 many creatures exhibit, from timidity to boldness 

 and rage, from stupidity to art and stratagem, for 

 the preservation of a helpless offspring, seems to 

 be an established ordination of Providence, actuat- 

 ing in various degrees most of the races of animated 

 beings ; and we have few examples of this influ- 

 encing principle more obvious than this of the 

 missel bird, in which a creature addicted to solitude 

 and shyness will abandon its haunts, and associate 

 with those it fears, to preserve its offspring from an 

 enemy more merciless and predaceous still. The 

 love of offspring, one of the strongest impressions 

 given to created beings, and inseparable from their 

 nature, is ordained by the Almighty as the means 

 of preservation under helplessness and want. De- 

 pendant, totally dependant as is the creature, for 

 every thing that can contribute to existence and 

 support, upon the great Creator of all things, so 

 are new-born feebleness and blindness dependant 

 upon the parent that produced them ; and to the 

 latter is given intensity of love, to overbalance the 

 privations and sufferings required from it. This 

 love, that changes the nature of the timid and 

 gentle to boldness and fury, exposes the parent 

 to injury and death, from which its wiles and cau- 



