A STUDY IN BIED MORALS 



THE eternal distinctions of right and wrong 

 upon which the moral law is based inhere 

 even in the jelly of the amoeba. The Decalogue 

 binds all the way down. In the course of a lit 

 tie observation one must find how faithfully the 

 animals, as a whole, keep the law, and how sadly, 

 at times, certain of them are wont to break it. 

 To pass over such notorious cases as the cow- 

 bird, cuckoo, turkey-buzzard, and crow, there is 

 still cause for positive alarm, if the birds have 

 souls, in the depraved habit of duplicity common 

 among them. In a single short tramp, one June 

 afternoon, no less than five different birds at- 

 tempted to deceive me. The casuist may be able 

 to justify all five of them ; for, no doubt, there are 

 extremities when this breach of the law should 

 not merit condemnation ; but even so, if in the 

 [187] 



