FALSE IMPRESSIONS 199 



which the whole of the nest, outside, is stuck over — 

 and so tiny are the pieces they carry, that I have, 

 time after time, been unable to see them, even 

 though sitting near and using the glasses. I have 

 been so struck with this, that, sometimes, I have 

 thought the lichen was carried rather in the mouth 

 than in the bill, by which means it would be 

 moistened, and so stick the easier on the outside 

 surface of the nest. 



It is most interesting to see the nest growing 

 under the joint labours of the two little architects, 

 and it does so at a quicker pace than one would 

 have thought possible. At first it is a cup, merely, 

 like most other nests — those of the chaffinch, gold- 

 finch, linnet, &c. — and it is because the birds will 

 not leave off working, but continue to build, that the 

 cup becomes deeper and deeper till it is a purse or 

 sack. Here, as I imagine, we see the origin of 

 the domed nest. It was not helped forward by 

 successive little steps of intelligence, but only by 

 the strength of the building instinct, which would 

 not let the birds make an end. The same cause 

 has produced also, as I believe, the supernumerary 

 nests which so many birds make, and which are such 

 a puzzle to many people, who wonder at what 

 seems to them extra labour, rather than extra delight. 

 Even naturalists are always talking about the labour 

 and toil of a bird, when building, but this, in my 

 opinion, is an utterly erroneous way of looking at 

 it. As Shakespeare says, ** the labour we delight in 

 physics pain," and what delight can be greater 

 than that of satisfying an imperious and deep- 

 seated instinct ? It is in this that our own greatest 



