140 CLASS AVES. 



that this natural and amiable sentiment is not the result of 

 any mechanical connexion of ideas and sensations, but of a law 

 altogether divine. The swallow, precipitating itself into an 

 edifice in flames to rescue its young ; the hen, which hesitates 

 not to brave death in defence of her chickens ; the timid lark 

 presenting herself to the fowler, to divert him from her nest ; 

 the little colibris, which prefer an eternal slavery with their 

 offspring to liberty without them ; — in fine, all these touching 

 evidences of affection for the helpless, in animals so light and 

 volatile, clearly indicate the sacred impulse communicated to 

 all that breathe by the Mighty Being, who has willed the per- 

 petuity and support of every species. Here, indeed, we re- 

 cognise the Avorknianship of the Divinity in all its admirable 

 wisdom and surpassing benevolence : digitus Dei est hid 



We also find the birds deserving of the most attentive obser- 

 vation in the education of their young. The assiduity with 

 which they bring them food ; the care which they take to adapt 

 it to their tender stomachs ; the degrees by which they teach 

 them to fly, calculating with such accuracy the proportion of 

 their growing strength ; all these, and many other points of a 

 similar nature, are subjects of the highest interest to the con- 

 templative lover of Nature. 



It is a very mistaken idea, to imagine that the rapacious 

 birds, after having reared their offspring for some time, chase 

 them from the nest from the want of parental feeling. Among 

 all carnivora it is a common habit to excite their progeny to 

 seek their prey alone. Already have they fashioned and pre- 

 pared them for this, by bringing them living victims. It is the 

 useful lesson of necessity, and of the experience of an active 

 and enterprising life, which is thus transmitted from father to 

 son by this expulsion, in all appearance so barbarous and 

 unfeeling. We find that the croAV, after driving its offspring 

 from the nest, still leads and directs them for aAvhile in the 

 search of subsistence. 



We discover in the young bird, even in the nest, the germi- 



