Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/553

Rh After leaving the nest, we observe the more perfect performance of activities already begun within it, as pecking, crouching, standing erect with head upturned so admirably illustrated in the cuckoo, and especially in the cedar waxwing, where its use for concealment is obvious, as well as following, hiding, play, imitation, preying, and the more perfect expression of flight, finally followed by migration in late summer or fall, which may be performed, as in the cuckoos, quite independent of the parents.

The description of the reproductive cycle given above is a composite, and applies most completely to the altricious birds, which are born blind and would quickly perish but for timely care of their parents. There are many special instincts in the twelve thousand or more species of known birds, but few of which have been adequately studied, and there are many minor variations in every term of the series, the discussion of which would require a volume.

The power of the parental instincts to banish fear in all classes of the higher animals has been recognized and admired from antiquity, and nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the brooding bird. The ancient Israelites were forbidden to take the mother bird with her young, because at certain times, as one commentator has observed, she will not avail herself of her power of concealment and flight, the object