134 NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



but a passionate being intent on the study of his 

 art and exulting in its triumph. 



The instinctive love for the young is doubtless 

 in part originated by the love for the mate. In 

 the animal world the latter sentiment may be con- 

 sidered as caused by grace of form and colouring, 

 and not by territorial possessions nor by gold. 

 Man has often ignored the natural association of 

 affinities, and has mated and unmated at will the 

 subservient animals. This seems to have caused 

 a moral collapse in at least one of them the 

 homing-pigeon. The wild variety pairs for life, 

 but the Antwerp homer, which has long been bred 

 for flight, lacks this pristine virtue, and an old 

 male is never tired of" showing-off" to any young 

 female of the species near him. Sometimes he 

 leads her quite astray ; yet, even in this depth of 

 depravity he very rarely accords her the compli- 

 ment he is ready to pay to his own wife, by 

 feeding her. 



It is regrettable that human love for animals so 

 often takes the form of a curse ; and, when one 

 thinks of the long record of human affection for 

 the weaker tenants of this fair earth ; the hunting, 



