174 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



against it on the outer side. But though such 

 action may now have become part of a shaping 

 process, yet it was impossible for me, when I saw 

 it, not to think of the peewit, in which something 

 markedly similar could have answered no purpose 

 of this kind. Were the latter bird, instead of 

 rolling on the ground, to do so in a properly con- 

 structed nest, of a size suitable to its bulk, the 

 tail, being bent forcibly down in the way I have 

 described, would compress the rim of it, just as did 

 that of the blackbird. And were the blackbird to 

 do what I have seen it do, on the bare ground, 

 and side by side with the peewit, a curious parallel 

 would, I think, be exhibited. As far as I have 

 been able to see, the actions of rooks on the nest 

 are very similar to those of the blackbird, and a 

 black Australian swan, that I watched in the Pittville 

 Gardens at Cheltenham, went through movements, 

 upon the great heap of leaves flung down for it, 

 which much resembled those of the peewit upon 

 the ground. By what I understand from the swan- 

 keeper at Abbotsbury, the male of the mute swan 

 acts in much the same way. Of course what is 

 wanted is extended observation of the way in which 

 birds build their nests — that is to say, of their in- 

 timate actions when on them, either placing the 

 materials or shaping the structure. If the origin 

 of the habit has been as I imagine, one might expect, 

 here, to see traces of it, in movements more or less 

 resembling those to which I have drawn attention. 



I have noticed the curious way in which both the 

 male and female peewit — after movements which 

 appear to me to differ considerably from the more 



