104 THE STORY OF ‘THE BIRDS. 
of her ancestors. Ninety-five degrees in the shade 
takes a deal of energy and progress out of us all, and 
we show a very degenerative tendency toward primitive 
habits, as the loose robe and the summer tent often 
indicate. 
Doubtless many other birds are influenced by this 
element of laziness, for the second nests of most birds 
are rarely so well built as the first. Even so neat a 
bird as the chipping sparrow has been seen relining 
an abandoned ecatbird’s home for its second brooding. 
But there is no doubt also that there are sloven in- 
dividuals among the respective species of our neigh- 
bors, for some are much neater than others. 
Again some, as we have seen in the dove, are 
much inclined to be influenced by circumstances. 
These may be brought about by conditions of safety 
or convenience of material. Nests of the same birds 
differ in the latter according as they may be in, say, 
a hemp-, a cotton- or a wool-growing region. An ex- 
treme case is that of the little bird, which, straying 
into the crater of the voleanoes on the Sandwich 
Islands, builds its home of the spun glass about it 
—and of course should not throw stones at anybody. 
Another bird is reported to have built its nest in 
Switzerland of fragments of the mainsprings and hair- 
springs of watches thrown outside a factory, and is 
entirely up to date with a steel structure or at least a 
woven-wire mattress. 
Ornithological records are full of instances of 
change both in progress and degeneration of nest 
building. But further instances are precluded by 
