INTRODUCTION. 
Ixxxvii 
attachment is in most of these denizens of air, it sometimes gives waj 
to an opposite feeling; the mother that to-day watches, nourishes, and 
protects, her oiispring with an extravagance of fondness, to-morrow 
deserts them, and leaves them to perish. It is true this rarely happens, 
nor unless the parents have been disturbed in the discharge of their duty, 
or their young ones have been often exposed to the prying eye of wanton 
curiosity. Few birds, even under the most distressing circumstances, quit 
their young ; and it is generally those whose native wildness implants a 
fear in their minds that undcr nines, and at length suppresses and destroys, 
the deep-rooted and powerful impulse of parental ati'ection. 
Of the feathered race, when they are robbed of their young ones ir 
their presence, none but those of the most solitary dispositions, or which 
constantly shun the appearance of man, but will follow them even to a great 
distance, attend them in raptivity, and provide them with food, how^ever 
laborious and dangerous the employment ; — their happiness centering in their 
offspring, neither their own desires nor safety are put in competition with 
the wants of their progeny, and every difficulty the parent can overcome 
is surmounted. But not only toward their young do birds pourtray a 
strong affection ; many of those which live in monogamy throughout the 
year, or only in the vernal season, exhibit decisive proofs of attachment 
and affectionate regard. If one of the smaller birds be deprived of its 
mate, it chirps its sorrows in the most doleful tone, its misery is evinced 
Marcgrave asserts, that the Palamedea Cornuta, or Horned Screamer, exhibits one of the 
most perfect patterns of connubial affection; and that, when one of the pair dies, the other takes 
no sustenance, but sits beside the dead body of its mate until melancholy and hunger destroy it. 
I have often witnessed striking instances of affection in the Wagtail, Crow, Gull, and several 
other birds. In the prior part of the month of March, 180 /, I shot at a flock of Chaffinches, 
and, while reloading, observed a male Chaffinch, in an unusual rnanner> flapping its wings, uttering 
mournful tones, and running round a hillock at a distance. Induced, by these strange actions of 
the bird, to attend to its motions, I at length approached it, and perceived on the ground a female 
Chaffinch then expiring ; the male flew away, perched on a rieighbouring tree, and continued for 
