The Massachusetts Spy

[From the Newburyport Herald.]

Maternal Tenderness.—Nothing has been more frequently asserted, and we believe nothing is more true, than that the affection of a mother for her offspring is far the tenderest, the most enduring, the strongest, that is ever cherished in the human breast. And the assertion holds equally true with regard to the brute creation. We lately heard a remarkable instance of it, which fell within the observation of a gentleman in this town.—In trimming the top of a poplar tree the last summer, he inadvertently left uncovered and exposed to the direct rays of the sun, a robin's nest full of young robins. As the heat of the sun became intense, the hen-robin was observed to place herself on the south edge of the nest, standing with her wings expanded over it, so as to shelter the unfledged birds; and here, while her partner provided food, turning around as the sun turned, she resolutely kept her station until the cool of the evening, although it could plainly be seen, by her drooping head and her tongue hanging from her mouth, that she herself was parched with heat, which she patiently suffered for the protection of her tender offspring.—If this be mere instinct, what is reason?