No. 1. 



Instinct of Birds. 



19 



Instinct of Birds. 



One of the most remarkable cases of in- 

 stinctive kno\vlcdo;e in birds, was often re- 

 lated by my grandfather, who witnessed the 

 fact with his own eyes. He was attracted 

 to the door, one summer day, by a troubled 

 twittering', indicating distress and terror. 

 A bird, who had built her nest in a tree 

 near the door, was flying back and forth 

 with the utmost speed, uttering wailing 

 cries as she went. He was at first at a loss 

 to account for her strange movements ; but 

 they were soon explained, by the sight of a 

 snake, slowly winding up the tree. 



Animal magnetism was then unheard of; 

 and whosoever had dared to mention it, 

 would doubtless have been hung on Witch's 

 hill, without benefit of clergy. Neverthe- 

 less, marvellous and altogether unaccount- 

 able stories have been told of the snake's 

 power to charm birds. My grandfather hav- 

 ing a mind to test the truth of such stories, 

 thought he would watch the progress of 

 things; but, being a humane man, he re- 

 solved to kill the snake before he despoiled 

 the nest. The distressed mother, mean- 

 while, continued her rapid movements and 

 troubled cries; and he soon discovered that 

 she went and came continually, with some- 

 thing in her bill, from one particular tree — 

 a white ash. The snake wound his way 

 up; but the instant his head came near the 

 nest, his folds relaxed, and he fell to the 

 ground rigid, and apparently lifeless. My 

 grandfather made sure of his death, by cut- 

 ting off his head, and then mounted the tree 

 to examine into the mystery. The snug 

 little nest was filled with eggs, and covered 

 with leaves of the white ash ! 



That little bird knew, if my readers do 

 not, that contact with the white asji is deadly 

 to a snake. This is no idle superstition; but 

 a veritable fact in natural history. The In- 

 dians are aware of it, and twist garlands of 

 white ash leaves about their ancles, as a 

 protection against rattle-snakes. 



I have never heard any explanation of the 

 effect produced by the white ash ; but I 

 know that settlers in the wilderness, like to 

 have these trees around their log-houses, 

 being convinced that no snake will volunta- 

 rily come near them. When touched with 

 the boughs, they are said to grow suddenly 

 rigid, with strong convulsions; after a while 

 they slowly recover, but seem sickly for 

 some time. 



The following well-authenticated anec- 

 dote has something wonderfully human 

 about it : 



A parrot had been caught young, and 

 trained by a Spanish lady, who sold it to an 



English sea-captain. For a time, the bird 

 seemed sad among the fogs of England, 

 where birds and men all spoke to her in a 

 foreign tongue. By degrees, however, she 

 learned the language, forgot her Spanish 

 phrases, and seemed to feel at home. Years 

 passed on, and found Pretty Poll the pet of 

 the captain's family. At last, her brilliant 

 feathers began to turn grey with aoe ; she 

 could take no food but soft pulp, and had not 

 strength enough to mount her perch. But 

 no one had the heart to kill the old favour- 

 ite ; she was entwined with so many plea- 

 sant, household recollections. Slie had been 

 some time in this feeble condition, when a 

 Spanish gentleman called one day to see her 

 master. It was the first time she had lieard 

 the language for many years. It probably 

 brought back to memory the scenes of her 

 youth in that beautiful region of vines and 

 sunshine. She spread forth her wings with 

 a wild scream of joy, rapidly run over the 

 Spanish phrases, which she had not uttered 

 for years, and fell down dead. 



There are different theories on the subject 

 of instinct. Some consider it a special reve- 

 lation to each creature; others believe it is 

 founded on traditions handed down among 

 animals, from generation to generation, and 

 is therefore a matter of education. My own 

 observation, two years ago, tends to confirm 

 the latter theory. Two barn-swallows came 

 into our wood-shed in the spring time. Their 

 busy, earnest twitterings, led me at once to 

 suspect that they were looking out a build- 

 ing spot ; but as a carpenter's bench was 

 under the window, and frequent hammering, 

 sawing, and planing were going on, I had 

 little hope they would choose a location 

 imder our roof. To my surprise, however, 

 they soon began to build in the crotch of a 

 beam, over the open door- way. I was de- 

 lighted, and spent more time watching them, 

 than "penny-wise" people would have ap- 

 proved. It was, in fact, a beautiful little 

 drama of domestic love. The mother bird 

 was so busy, and .so important ; and her 

 mate was so attentive! Never did any 

 newly-married couple take more satisfaction 

 with their first nicely-arranged drawer of 

 baby-clothes, than they did in tashioning 

 their little woven cradle. 



The father bird scarcely ever left the side 

 of the nest. There he was, all day long, 

 twittering in tones that were most obviously 

 the out-pourings of love. Sometimes he 

 would bring in a straw, or a hair, to be in- 

 woven in the precious little fabric. One 

 day my attention was arrested by a very 

 unusual twittering, and I saw him circling 

 round with a large, downy feather in his 

 bill. He bent over the unfinished nest, and 



