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 likely to 
be more or less demoralized when animal life 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 lives and in perpetuating 
them! And “fear of any particular enemy,” says 
74 
