16 An Inquiry respecting 



rentes^ for instance, is altogether superior to what can be explained 

 upon any other principles; — they will die in protecting their mates, 

 and each other. In their manners they are peaceable and harmless, 

 bearing the strongest attachment to each other ; but when attacked, 

 some will strive to overset the boat, by going beneath it ; others 

 fling themselves on the rope of the hook by which their comrade is 

 held, and endeavour to break it; while others again make eiforts 

 to wrench the instrument out of the body of their wounded com- 

 panion : none desert him, but persist in their courageous efforts 

 for his rescue, even to the last! Their attachment to their mates, 

 is, if possible, still more astonishing, and cannot be contemplated 

 Tvithout exciting the most vivid sympathy and admiration. It is 

 indeed the most perfect lesson of fidelity and heroic devotion*. If 

 in this case we could suppose the creatures capable of reflecting 

 upon the nature of their actions, which are the evident results of a 

 moral influence, what must we think of them ? — or rather, what 

 must we not think of them ? For it is to be observed, that this 

 conduct is adapted to circumstances^ and discovers an apparent 

 r ational discrimination^ as well as an apparent mural consciousness ; 

 in the means employed by the creatures towards the accomplish- 

 ment of the ends which the exigency suggests. 



The controling energies which direct the limited conscious 

 powers of brute creatures to particular ends, are wonderfully dis- 

 played again in the economy of the cuckoQ, which lays its eggs in 

 the nest of the hedge-sparrow, and in those of other small birds ; 

 these birds, so far from molesting the young intruder, — who, 

 in a singularly curious manner, expels its companions, the small 

 birds' progeny, from the nest, in order that itself may be exclu- 

 sively and adequately fed by the parents, — feed and cherish 

 it, till it arrives at nearly its full growth ; that is, until it is 

 four or five times the size of the foster-parents.+ The cuckoo, as 

 if conscious that one of her overgrown nurslings would be quite suf- 

 ficient for the hedge sparrow or wagtail to attend to and provide 

 for, although she lays several eggs, deposits them in as many 

 * Bingley's Anim. Biog. vol. i, p. 177, et seq. 



+ Jenner's Observations on the Nat. Hist, of the Cuckoo, Phil. Trans, vol . 

 Ixxviii, p. 221, et seq. 



