READING THE BOOK OF NATURE 
and that she did not have the sense to roll or carry 
it back to its place. 
There is another view of the case which no doubt 
the sentimental “School of Nature Study” would 
eagerly adopt: A very severe drouth reigned through- 
out the land; food was probably scarce, and was 
becoming scarcer ; the bird foresaw her inability 
to care for four young ones, and so reduced the 
possible number by ejecting one of the eggs from 
the nest. This sounds pretty and plausible, and so 
credits the bird with the wisdom that the public is 
so fond of believing it possesses. Something like 
this wisdom often occurs among the hive bees in 
seasons of scarcity ; they will destroy the unhatched 
queens. But birds have no such foresight, and make 
no such calculations. In cold, backward seasons, 
I think, birds lay fewer eggs than when the season 
is early and warm, but that is not a matter of cal- 
culation on their part; it is the result of outward 
conditions. 
A great many observers and nature students at 
the present time are possessed of the notion that 
the birds and beasts instruct their young, train 
them and tutor them, much after the human man- 
ner. In the familiar sight of a pair of crows for- 
aging with their young about a field in summer, 
one of our nature writers sees the old birds giving 
their young a lesson in flying. She says that the 
most important thing that the elders had to do was 
233 
