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 



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