INSTINCTS OF BIRDS. 271 



the incitement of appetite, are readily snared by 

 the most simple contrivances directly after 

 witnessing the capture of their companions ; and 

 rooks continue to breed in those rookeries, where 

 the greater part of their young is destroyed every 

 spring.* For three successive seasons a pair of 

 redstarts persisted in making their nest in the 

 upper part of our pump, on that end of the lever 

 which is connected with the rod of the piston, 

 and, of course, always had it disturbed when 

 that engine was used. Mr. White observes too,t 

 that in the neighbourhood of Selborne, martins 

 build year by year, in the corners of the windows 

 of a house without eaves, situated in an exposed 

 district; and as the corners of these windows 

 are too shallow to protect the nests from injury, 

 they are washed down every hard rain ; yet the 

 birds drudge on to no purpose from summer 

 to summer, without changing their aspect or 

 house. 



These actions, it cannot be denied, seem to 

 indicate a more limited degree of sagacity in 

 birds than might be inferred from those imme- 

 diately preceding them. This apparent contra- 



* I am assured by T. Legh, Esq., that many thousands of 

 young rooks are shot every breeding season in his extensive 

 rookery, at Lyme Park, in Cheshire. 



t Natural History of Selborne, p. 160. 



