THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS' NESTS. 215 



and that his constitution was not originally adapted, 

 and has not since become perfectly adapted, to the 

 climate." 



The Malay races, on the other hand, are no doubt 

 very ancient inhabitants of the hottest regions, and 

 are particularly addicted to forming their first settle- 

 ments at the mouths of rivers or creeks, or in land- 

 locked bays and inlets. They are a pre-eminently 

 maritime or semi-aquatic people, to whom a canoe is a 

 necessary of life, and who will never travel by land if 

 they can do so by water. In accordance with these 

 tastes, they have built their houses on posts in the 

 water, after the manner of the lake-dwellers of ancient 

 Europe ; and this mode of construction has become so 

 confirmed, that even those tribes who have spread far 

 into the interior, on dry plains and rocky mountains, 

 continue to build in exactly the same manner, and 

 find safety in the height to which they elevate their 

 dwellings above the ground. 



Why does each Bird build a peculiar kind of Nest ? 



These general characteristics of the abode of savage 

 man will be found to be exactly paralleled by the nests 

 of birds. Each species uses the materials it can most 

 readily obtain, and builds in situations most congenial 

 to its habits. The wren, for example, frequenting 

 hedgerows and low thickets, builds its nest generally of 

 moss, a material always found where it lives, and among 

 which it probably obtains much of its insect food ; but 

 it varies sometimes, using hay or feathers when these 



