32 



tinues to construct her nest after the old pattern, but has 

 learnt to weave it from materials furnished by civilization. 

 I have a beautiful nest of this bird, made wholly from mate- 

 terials swept out oi the door of a milliner's shop, woven and 

 interlaced with ribbons and laces and other fine things that 

 ladies wear, including: a threaded needle, that girls so often 

 lose. In regard to the singular habits of the Cow- 1 'en- Bird in 

 not building nests of its own, but laying its eggs in other 

 bird's nests, and leaving them to the care ol a foster parent, 

 there seems to have been no change, for many years at least. 

 All our ornithologists have failed as yet to account ior the 

 vagrant habits of this bird. Darwin, in his Origin of Species 

 has at length, as he supposes, solved the mystery. The 

 habit as seen in the European Cuckoo, which is similar to 

 the Cow-bird, he thinks arises from the slave-nuking instinct 

 of animals. He reasons in this wav : Now let us suppose 

 that the ancient progenitor of our European Cuckoo, had 

 the habits of the American Cuckoo ; but that occasionally 

 she laid an egg in another bird's nest. If the old bird profited 

 by this occasional habit, or if the young were made more 

 vigorous, by advantage having been taken of the mistaken 

 instinct of another bird, than by their own mother's care, 

 encumbered as she can hardly fail to be, by having eggs and 

 young of different ages at the same time ; then the old birds, 

 or the fostered young, would gain an advantage And 

 analogy would lead me to believe, that the young thus 

 reared, would be apt to follow by inheritance, the occasional 

 and aberrant habit of their rcother, and in their turn would 

 be apt to lay their eggs in other bird's nests and thus be 

 successful in rearing their young. By a continued process 

 of this nature, the strange instinct of our Cuckoo could be 

 and has been generated. 



Some modern naturalists have noticed among some ani- 

 mals, certain aberrant and mutilated forms, and established 

 what they term the theory of degradation. And, lor an 

 example, they give us the misplacement of parts, such as 

 are now exhibited in some fish, such as the flounder, turbot, 

 and halibut. These are supposed to have once moved about 

 upright, like most fish, but Irom some cause or other, a long 

 time ago, they were thrown over and made to swim upon 

 their sides, their squinting eyes stuck upon the top of their 

 heads, and their mouths twisted awry. Some theologians 



