124 



Wild Birds. 



We have seen that the instinct of fear is inherited, and often delayed, where it is a 

 special adaptation, not only leading the young, as Lloyd Morgan remarks, to accept a 

 foster parent and not to shrinlc from her, but what is more important, keeping the young 

 in the nest, barring accidents, until they can in some degree help themselves. Fear of 

 particular objects is learned, or becomes grafted on to the original stock. The instinct 

 may gather force or disappear, at least in adult life, according to the nature of the 

 environment and the new habits formed in consequence. The instinctive basis of fear is 

 apparently handed down from generation to generation, but in the life of the full-grown 

 bird, it is probably largely replaced by habit, or the formation of associations. The 

 innate or latent capacity remains, but the definite association of certain actions with 

 particular objects or e.xperiences is probably handed down by tradition rather than by 

 heredity. 



Fig. 121. Young Cowbird and nest of Magnolia Warbler Fig. 122. Young Cowbird comfortably filling the nest 



in which it was reared. of its foster parent, whose children it smothered; fearless, 



though nearly ready to fly. 



