[1] Adoption—Illegitimate Child—Essentials.—In view of section 230 of the Civil Code, four things are essential to the adoption of an illegitimate child by its father, first, he shall be its natural father, second, he shall have publicly acknowledged himself to be the father, third, he shall have received the child into Ms family, and fourth, he shall have otherwise treated it as his legitimate child.

[2] Id.—Reception of Illegitimate Child Into Family—Test.—It is the attitude of the father toward and his conduct in respect to his illegitimate child, and not the1 character of Ms relationship with the mother, which is the true test in determining whether the child was received into the family of the father.

[3] Id.—Clandestine Family of Unmabbied Man—Maintenance op , Illegitimate Child—Insufficient Reception into Family.— Where the unmarried father of an illegitimate child lives in the same community and maintains constant relations with his own legitimate family, and at the same time, under an assumed name, maintains t'he illegitimate child clandestinely in another home with its mother, with whom he lives in illicit relations a great part of his time, he is not receiving the child as his own “into his family,” within the meaning of section 230 of the Civil Code.

1. What amounts to recognition within statutes affecting the status or rights of illegitimates, note, L. R. A. 1916E, 659.

[4] Id.—Concealment of Existence of Illegitimate Child from Legitimate Relatives—Insufficient Treatment of Child as Legitimate.—Where the father of an illegitimate child has members of his own family living in t'he same community, with whom he is in almost constant association and maintains cordial relations, he does not treat the child as if it were a legitimate child, if he conceals its existence from such members of his real family, never has them visit the child or has the child visit them, or in any other manner acts toward the child with regard to his own legitimate relatives as any father reasonably would if he intended to adopt the child as his own and treat it as his legitimate child.