A SHORT STUDY OF BIRDS'-NJESTS. 481 



7. Pronunciation is acquired without 

 effort by the ear. 



8. We understand foreigners as well as 

 natives. 



9. Nothing is learned by heart. 



10. All our processes tend to prevent 

 mistakes. 



11. We have no need of a master for pro- 

 nunciation. 



12. We are soon able to think in the for- 

 eign idiom. 



7. Pronunciation is acquired with diffi- 

 culty by reading. 



8. We cannot understand the foreign 

 language when spoken. 



9. Much time is spent in memorizing 

 lessons. 



10. All the processes tend to produce 

 mistakes. 



11. We cannot learn pronunciation with- 

 out the help of a master. 



12. We never come to think in the for- 

 eign idiom. 



A SHORT STUDY OF BIKDS'-NESTS. 



Br CHAELES C. ABBOTT, M. D. 



HAVING had many opportunities of examining the nests of those 

 birds habitually breeding throughout Central New Jersey, dur- 

 ing the past fifteen years, and so, familiar with the construction and 

 location of such nests, I have, since the publication of Mr. "Wallace's 

 essays on "Natural Selection," in 1870, ' endeavored to determine if 

 the theory there expressed was applicable to the birds that are com- 

 mon to the locality we have mentioned. 



In so studying birds'-nests, I have carefully avoided prematurely 

 arriving at any conclusions that might influence my judgment when 

 subsequently examining a series of nests, and therefore I believe the 

 notes made concerning the construction of each nest, and the infer- 

 ences drawn, are exact in the former case, and justifiable in the latter. 



At the very outset, I found a careful study of the courtship of 

 birds essential to a proper appreciation of their subsequent habits, 

 and learned, not at all to my surprise, that marriage among birds, as 

 among mankind, is not universal, but that both bachelor and spinster 

 birds of every (?) species constitute a fraction of the ornithic popula- 

 tion of our woods and fields. 



I reached the above conclusion in this way : Having carefully 

 gone over a given extent of ground, and noted every nest, say of the 

 cat-bird (Galeoscoptes Carolinoisis), I have then endeavored to learn 

 about or precisely the number of individuals of this species frequent- 

 ing the same extent of territory. As birds, during the breeding-sea- 

 son, do not wander any very great distance from their nests on the 

 one hand, nor from the locality whereat they halt on their arrival in 

 early spring, on the other hand, it is not very difficult to reach a very 



1 Essays on " Natural Selection," by A. R. Wallace. Macmillan & Co., London and 

 New York, 1870 (pp. 211-263 inclusive). 

 vol. vi. 31 



