CONCLUSION. 803 
storks, in times fertile in reptiles, have acquired the habit of dwelling 
among us. 
Here an observation becomes essential. We often construe as a 
sign of mistrust the bird’s flight and his fear of the human hand. 
This fear is only too well founded. But even if it did not exist, the 
bird is an infinitely nervous and delicate creature, which suffers if 
simply touched. 
My robin, which belongs to a very robust and friendly race of 
birds, which continually draws near us, as near as possible, and 
which assuredly has no fear of his mistress, trembles to fall into her 
hand. The rustling of his plumes, the derangement of his down, all 
bristling when he has been handled, he keenly dislikes. The sight, 
above all, of the outstretched hand about to seize him, makes him 
recoil instinctively. 
When he lingers about in the evening, and does not return into 
his cage, he does not refuse to be replaced within it; but sooner than 
see himself caught, he turns his back, hides in a crease or fold of the 
gown where he well knows he must infallibly be taken. 
All this is not mistrust. 
The art of domestication will make no progress if it occupies 
itself only with the services which tamed animals may render 
to man, 
It ought to proceed in the main from the consideration of the 
service which man may render the animals ; 
Of his duty to initiate all the tenants of this world into a gentler, 
more peaceable, and superior society. 
In the barbarism in which we are still plunged, we know of only 
two conditions for the animal, absolute liberty or absolute slavery ; 
