Correspondence , Notes , etc. 221



discovered, but before the clutch was completed the birds had finished

roofing it over.”


It will be seen, therefore, that, even in this irregular peculiarity, the

Zebra Finches, the only specimens I had at that time, followed in the foot¬

steps of their Australian forefathers.


I should add that birds which have been in the house for quite a long

time, and have nested and even reared young in artificial next-boxes, will,

when introduced into my natural garden aviary, proceed to build normal

nests in normal sites, and will not take advantage of the shelters and boxes

for nesting purposes until after they have undergone the uncomfortable

experiences of wind and rain already alluded to.


Reginald Phillipps.



Sir, — I have already proved that both Canaries and Bengalese, when

turned into an aviary with growing shrubs, instinctively build nests of the

same type as those which their remote ancestors built ; although, for

centuries, these birds have been accustomed to build in boxes, in which

they had 110 weaving to do. In both of these cases no instruction was, or

could have been, given to the architects. Prof. Henslow will find these

facts recorded in the ‘Zoologist’ for July, 1902, p. 258.


A. G. Butler.



Sir, —In reply to Rev. Prof. Geo. Heuslow’s interesting query under

this heading, I would like to quote several pages of Rev. J. G. Wood’s

“ Man and Beast,” but it would take up too much of the Magazine’s space.

I will therefore confine myself to quoting only a paragraph, as follows :


“ Though the 3'ouug pass their first few weeks inside the nest they

do not see the outside, neither can the) r possibly learn from their parents

where the materials were obtained and the mode of putting them together.

Each species moreover adheres to the habits of its kind, so that a Chaffinch

if bred in a Redstart’s nest, would build the nest of a Chaffinch and not

that of a Redstart. There have been countless generations of Cuckoos,

but although every one of them was bred in the nest of a foster-parent not

of its own species, not one of them has learned to build a nest for itself,

but when it becomes a mother, is taught by instinct to lay its eggs in the

nest of some other bird.


“ Take the case of insects. Instinct teaches the silkworm to make

its cocoon, to wait there until it is developed into a moth and then to force

its way into the world. It has never seen a cocoon before, so that it could

not learn by imitation. Its mother died long before it was hatched, so that

it would not learn by instruction. But taught by instinct it forms its

cocoon exactly as did its parents whom it never saw, and as will its offspring

whom it never will see.”


As to facts—Canaries have been bred in cages for generations and



