This then is sufficient reason why no boy should
take young birds — it is foolish, and it is cruel. It
is cruel to the young, and it is cruel to the old ; for
the instinct of parental affection is tenfold more
strongly developed towards the young, than towards
the egg. Let every generous-minded lad recollect,
when he feels tempted to carry off young birds, his
ignorance of what they need, and the immense differ-



COUNTEY-BOOK. 61

enoe between the care he can bestow upon them^ and
the cares bestowed upon them by the old birds. It
requires the perpetual and most assiduous labour of
two birds to feed and cherish a brood of young ones
till they are capable of maintaining themselves. To
and fro they fly from morning till nighty to hill and
valley^ through the air, and to the water, to leaf and
flower, to peculiar spots for peculiar food known only
to their own instinct; and under these cares the
young ones thrive most marvellously, and cover them-
selvea with feathers, and take to the wing with as-
tonishing rapidity. But if any boy would learn the
difference of the attentions required by young birds
from the old ones, and any attentions which he could
bestow upon them, he has only to notice a nest of
martins under his own father's eaves. He will see
that a minute does not pass through the day without
one or other bird bringing food to it; and this is
kept up from two or three o'clock in a summer's
morning till after sunset — at least sixteen hours per
day. That wiU give about one thousand feedings in
a day, each time consisting of a fly of a peculiar
species, or of water. Let him reflect, that every
different kind of bird requires a different kind of
food ; and if he be a lad of any feeling or reflection,
he will feel or see sufBcient to make him despair of
becoming a fitting nurse to a brood ofi^young birds.
