INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 19 



to the brute creation, that it must be acknow- 

 ledged they are endowed with powers in which 

 instinct takes no share. A wounded crow left 

 in a field, is soon surrounded by its fellows, 

 seeking fc> assist it; a swallow entangled in its 

 nest by a bit of thread, was immediately aided by 

 other swallows, which flew violently against the 

 thread, with the view of breaking it." 



Birds have been known to feed the young of 

 those whose parents had been destroyed. A 

 gentleman had a young cock thrush brought to 

 him early in the spring. It throve and did well. 

 Some time after a nest of helpless young black- 

 birds was placed in the cage with the thrush. 

 The latter, as if aware they needed his care, fed 

 and brought them all up. 



Dr. Percival, in his "Dissertations," gives a 

 remarkable instance of the sympathy and sagacity 

 of some rooks. He was watching the evolutions 

 of a large colony of these birds which had been 

 established many years in a grove on the banks of 

 the Irwell, near Manchester. As he was thus 

 noticing their various labours and pastimes, a 

 strange accident occurred. A rook, by a sharp 

 and sudden turn, struck his beak against the wing 

 of another. The sufferer instantly fell into the 

 river. A general cry of distress followed, and the 

 birds, with every expression of anxiety, fluttered 



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