birds' nests. 173 



Pigeons are very simple architects, and either use a few sticks in a low 

 tree, which is the manner of the Ring and Turtle Doves, or build in holes 

 of trees as the Stock Dove, or in rocks as the Biset Pigeon, or Rockeer; 

 all lay two white eggs, and are very prolific. I think there are no other 

 birds that I have to speak of now, but the gallinacise or fowl kind, and 

 these, or a great portion of them, are ours merely by adoption. Thus 

 the Domestic Fowl comes originally from India, where it is found in the 

 jungles, or thickly-wooded districts, in great abundance, as is the case of 

 the Pigeon. Domestication has here worked strange changes: all the fowl 

 kind lay white eggs except the Pea or Guinea Fowl, whose eggs are of a 

 dark cream-coloured shade. Poultry will lay about fourteen eggs each upon 

 the average; they deposit them upon the ground, as is well known, making 

 no nest. Pheasants do the same, but Partridges and Grouse prefer a thick 

 covert, or some good protection against weather or observation; even these, 

 however, collect very little material, except a small quantity of dry grass. 

 The eggs of the Partridge are stone-colour, those of the Pheasant a shade 

 darker and distinctly mottled; those of the Grouse brown, speckled, the 

 Ptarmigan darkest of all. These lay about the same number as the Domestic 

 Fowl, and sit about the same time, namely, twenty-three days. 



It appears from the foregoing observations, cursory and brief as they 

 must be to avoid being dry and tedious, that every bird's individual mode 

 of forming an habitation answers best, having* regard to its mode of life 

 and necessities; thus we find all those birds whose chief time is spent on 

 the earth itself, depositing their eggs to bring forth their offspring on its 

 very surface; those which are rather more active, and occasionally perch, 

 use moderate shrubs and bushes; others of more powerful wings, which 

 range to greater distances, employ the tall trees of the forest, and sit 

 securely in their aerial mansions; others which depend upon the waters for 

 their subsistence, plant their habitations on the margins of streams and 

 rivers, some kinds on the sea-shore in cliffs and rocks, or desert islands. 

 Those which subsist upon insect food, either reside, as Creepers, in the 

 very trees themselves which supply their prey, or, as the Swallows, in such 

 situations as to be easily entered on the way without obstacle. It may 

 seem anomalous that the Willow Wrens and other small birds which are 

 continually in trees, should choose the ground to build, but I consider this 

 arises from their weakness, which, did they build in open positions, would 

 render them objects of attack without the means of defence; and no doubt 

 if we look minutely into such cases we shall always find some good reason 

 to support them. The bringing up of a family, providing shelter and sub- 

 sistence for them, and educating them that they themselves may be able 

 to do likewise, is the chief business of life, and the only instance in which 

 this does not hold good universally is our own; but what does this arise 



VOL. VII. 2 A 



