212 THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS' NESTS. 



struct his dwelling by reason ; that birds do change and 

 improve when affected by the same causes that make 

 men do so ; and that mankind neither alter nor improve 

 when they exist under conditions similar to those which 

 are almost universal among birds. 



Do Men build by Reason or by Imitation? 



Let us first consider the theory of reason, as alone 

 determining the domestic architecture of the human 

 race. Man, as a reasonable animal, it is said, con- 

 tinually alters and improves his dwelling. This I en- 

 tirely deny. As a rule, he neither alters nor improves, 

 any more than the birds do. What have the houses of 

 most savage tribes improved from, each as invariable as 

 the nest of a species of bird ? The tents of the Arab 

 are the same now as they were two or three thousand 

 years ago, and the mud villages of Egypt can scarcely 

 have improved since the time of the Pharoahs. The 

 palm-leaf huts and hovels of the various tribes of South 

 America and the Malay Archipelago, what have they 

 improved from since those regions were first inhabited ? 

 The Patagonian's rude shelter of leaves, the hollowed 



O * 



bank of the South African Earthmen, we cannot even 

 conceive to have been ever inferior to what they now 

 are. Even nearer home, the Irish turf cabin and the 

 Highland stone shelty can hardly have advanced much 

 during the last two thousand years. Now, no one 

 imputes this stationary condition of domestic archi- 

 tecture among these savage tribes to -instinct, but to 

 simple imitation from one generation to another, and 



