is soon enlivened by their presence. They continue in small parties to frequent the low borders of creeks, swamps, and ponds, till about the middle of April, when they separate in pairs to breed; and about the last week in April, or first in May, begin to construct their nest. The place chosen for this is generally within the precincts of a marsh or swamp, meadow, or other like watery situation. The spot usually a thicket of alder bushes, at the height of six or seven feet from the ground; sometimes in a detached bush, in a meadow of high grass; often in a tussock of rushes, or coarse rank grass; and not unfrequently in the ground-in all of which situations I have repeatedly found them. When in a bush, they are generally composed outwardly of wet rushes picked from the swamp, and long tough grass in large quantity, and well lined with very fine bent. The rushes forming the exterior, are generally extended to several of the adjoining twigs, round which they are repeatedly and securely twisted; a precaution absolutely necessary for its preservation, on account of the flexible nature of the bushes in which it is placed. The same caution is observed, when a tussock is chosen, by fastening the tops together, and intertwining the materials of which the nest is formed with the stalks of rushes around. When placed in the ground, less care and fewer materials being necessary, the nest is much simpler and slighter than before. The female lays five eggs of a very pale light blue, marked with faint tinges of light purple, and long straggling lines and dashes of black. It is not uncommon to find several nests in the same thicket, within a few feet of each other*."

Our own missel-thrush (Turdus viscivorus) is, perhaps, a still more dexterous basket-maker than the American red-wing, though its ingenuity has *Wilson, Amer. Ornithol. iv. p. 32.

basket, and by degrees enticed the old ones to my study window and after they became familiar with that situation, the basket was placed within the window; then at the opposite side of the room. It is remarkable that although the female seemed regardless of danger, from her affection to her young, the male never once ventured within the room; and yet would constantly feed them while they remained at the outside of the window: on the contrary, the female would feed them at the table at which I sat, and even when I held the nest in my hand, provided I remained motionless. But on moving my head one day, while she was on the edge of the nest, which I held in my hand, she made a precipitate retreat, mistook the open part of the window, knocked herself against the glass, and laid [lay] breathless on the floor for some time. It is probable the focal distance of such minute animals' eyes is very near, and that large objects are not represented perfect on the retina; that they do not seem to see such distinctly is certain, unless in motion. However, recovering a

little, she made her escape, and in about an hour after I was agreeably surprised by her return; and she would afterwards frequently feed the young while I held the nest in my hand. The male bird constantly attended the female in her flight to and fro, but never ventured beyond the window-frame; nor did he latterly ever appear with food in his bill. He never uttered any note but when the female was out of sight, and then only a small chirp. At first there were ten young in the nest, but probably for want of the male's assistance in procuring food, two died. The visits of the female were generally repeated in the space of a minute and a half or two minutes, or upon an average thirty-six times in an hour; and this continued full sixteen hours in a day, which, if equally divided between the eight young ones, each

would receive seventy-two feeds in the day; the whole amounting to five hundred and seventy-six. From examination of the food, which by accident now and then dropped into the nest, I judged from those weighed that each feed was a quarter of a grain upon an average; so that each young one was supplied with eighteen grains weight in a day; and as the young ones weighed about seventy-seven grains at the time they began to perch, they consumed nearly their weight of food in four days' time at that time. This extraordinary consumption seems absolutely requisite in animals of such rapid growth. The old birds of this species weigh from eighty to ninety grains. I could always perceive by the animation of the young brood when the old one was coming; probably some low note indicated her approach, and in an instant every mouth was open to receive the insect morsel. But there appeared no regularity in the supply given by the parent bird: sometimes the same was fed two or three times successively; and I generally observed that the strongest got most, being able to reach farthest, the old one delivering it to the mouth nearest to her*"

It would be easy for us to extend this chapter to a much greater length by similar anecdotes; but we shall only add one more respecting one of the humming birds (Trochilida), mentioned by M. Labat, premising that we have no means of ascertaining the particular species meant. It being found extremely difficult, if not impossible, to breed the young humming birds, endeavours have been made to rear them by taking advantage of the natural affection of the parents for their offspring. Our author records an instance of such an experiment: "I showed," says he, a nest of humming-birds to Father Montdidier, which was placed on a shed near the house. He *Ornith, Dict. Introd. 1st ed. and p. 204, 2nd ed.

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carried it off with the young, when they were about fifteen or twenty days old, and put them in a cage at his room window, where the cock and hen continued to feed them, and grew so tame, that they scarcely ever left the room; and though not shut in the cage, nor subjected to any restraint, they used to eat and sleep with their brood. I have often seen all the four sitting upon Father Montdidier's finger, singing as if they had been perched upon a branch. He fed them with a very fine and almost limpid paste, made with biscuit, Spanish wine, and sugar. They dipped their tongue in it, and when their appetite was satisfied they fluttered and chanted. I never saw any thing more lovely than these four pretty little birds, which flew about the house, and attended the call of their foster-father. He preserved them in this way five or six months, and we hoped soon to see them breed, when Father Montdidier, having forgotten one night to tie the cage in which they were roosted by a cord, that hung from the ceiling, to keep them from the rats, had the vexation in the morning to find that they had disappeared; they had been devoured*.”

*Nouveau Voyage aux Iles de l'Amerique, iv. 14.

CHAPTER XII.

TRAINING OF YOUNG BIRDS BY THEIR PARENTS.

By far the greater number of the actions of animals appear to be performed without previous instruction, in a manner which being inexplicable in the present state of knowledge, is designated by the terms instinct and instinctive, meaning that the motives to any particular movement or action, as well as the mode of execution, originate in the animal spontaneously, without the series of reasoning, or thinking and determining, which we employ in similar cases. Thus a frog is said to swim instinctively in water; that is, it requires no training, no instruction in the art of swimming, no more than we do in the process of breathing; and the same may be said with regard to the swimming of most other animals, even those least accustomed to water, few being unable to swim except man, who requires training and instruction for that purpose. It is not our design to enter here upon the difficult subject of instinct, farther than to point out a few of the acquired actions of birds, originating either in the express instruction or imitation of their parents.

With respect to the eagle, which is the most celebrated from the remotest antiquity for instructing its young, we are told by Moses, that she "stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, and taketh them and beareth them on her wings Aristotle adds, that the young are not permitted to leave the nest prematurely, and Deuteronomy, xxxii. 11.