The San Francisco call., 1896-04-12

, their welfare -neither, on the whole, can it
be said that the lower animals excel them
in this regard. Nhe maternal reason would
seem to be no greater among them than
among us, while the maternal instinct,
probably because acting in a certain degree
IN concert with the reason, is much less
lnfaihble than in the vegetable kingdom.
As showing for the king of beasts,
Henry Nj. Starley is authority for the
statement that three out of every five
lion cubs die during the process of cutting
their teeth. Other famous hunters testify
to an almost equal mortality among tiger
cubs, and of the grown creatures them
selves 1T is said that perfect skin is al
most impossible to secure, so apt are these
fierce carnivora to be afflicted with mango
Among sheep and cattle, even in the
semi-wildness of great herds on the plains.
maternal instinct is frequently so feeble
as to endanger the lives of the young. Let
mother-ewe lose sight of her lam bkin for
even brief period, and she does not recop-
nize it again. Not even human mother
hood can show stupidity exceeding that of
the cows OF India. These creatures are so
excessively maternal IN their feeling that
one of them will not let down her milk
unless her calf is beside her. So the In
dian calf is not weaned, as is the custom in
other countries, but if it dies, or is slain,
frequent occurrence, the skin is pre-
served, and, wrapped about bundle of
rags or straw, is exhibited to the mother
COW at milking time. Smelling it, she is
quite satisfied, and will not hold back her
milk. Such is the marvellous efficacy of
maternal reason and feeling in the brute
creation.
Herbert Spencer cites as q ridiculouslv
unmaternal act the fact that he once saw
mother shake her baby because it would
not nurse. Unreasonable the act certainly
seems but l have often seen mare kick
her foal or cat box her kittens ears for
the same offense.
Many curious stances of failure of both
instinct and reason along these lines occur
among the birds, really the most intelli-
gent, next to humankind, of all the crea-
lures. The reasonabenesS manifested by
birds in the building of their nests and
the rearing OF their young broods is one of
the most interesting things in nature. The
orlole Will tie strings together, attach the
ends to the projecting twigs of suitable
branch and swing its nest therefrom in
fashion that has an almost uncanny sug-
gestion OF human wisdom. But the bird
will sometimes miscalculate in the selec-
ton of branch and choose one that is not
strong enough to hold the nest securely
and the wee birdlings will be spilled pre-
maturely to the ground.
l have seen the nest of small bird, be-
side whose eggs the unm aternal cowbunt-
ing had deposited one of her own. This is
a fayorite trick of the cowbunting, who
builds no nest and broods no young. But,
detecting the intruder, the owners had
gone to work and built new bottom to
the structure, cutting off not only the
alien egg, but the rightful eggs of the
little hen whose nest it was. A
clever device, certainly, but how about the
wisdom and maternal feeling that deliber-
ately destroys its own offspring rather
than aid in rearing that of stranger? In
other instances the mother bird has not
even been SO clever but has sat upon and
hatched the intending egg, at the expense
of her own, which, being smaller, were
kept from the feathered warm tn of the
brooding breast until they were added
and came to naught. Nay, more, I
have known of 3 case where all the eggs