WAYS OF NATURE 



show perverted or demoralized instinct.) Similar 

 to these are the strange friendships that sometimes 

 occur among the domestic animals, as that of a sheep 

 with a cow, a goose with a horse, or a hen adopting 

 kittens. In a state of nature these curious attach- 

 ments probably never spring up. Instinct is hkely to 

 be more or less demoralized when animal Ufe touches 

 human life. 



With the wild creatures we sometimes see one 

 instinct overcoming another, as when fear drives 

 a bird to desert its nest, or when the instinct of mi- 

 gration leads a pair of swallows to desert their 

 unfledged young. 



A great many young birds come to grief by leaving 

 the nest before they can fly. In such cases, I sup- 

 pose, they disobey the parental instructions ! I find it 

 easier to believe that instinct is at fault, or that one 

 instinct has overcome another; something has dis- 

 turbed or alarmed the young birds, and the fear of 

 danger has led them to attempt flight before their 

 wings were strong enough. Once, when I was climb- 

 ing up to the nest of a broad-winged hawk, the 

 young took fright and launched out in the air, com- 

 ing to the ground only a few rods away. 



Instinct, natural prompting, is the main matter, 

 after all. It makes up at least nine tenths of the 

 lives of all our wild neighbors. How much has fear 

 had to do in shaping their hves and in perpetuating 

 them! And "fear of any particular enemy," says 

 74 



