CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Page 



Observation and Inattention contrasted .... 9 



A Taste for Natural History requires Cultivation . . 10 



Extraordinary Enthusiasm of Wilson . . . .11 



Quinary System, with the Orders and Families of -Birds, 



by M. Vigors 13 



CHAPTER I. MINING BIRDS. 



Inventions said to be derived from the Lower Animals . 17 

 The Mining of the Bank-swallow . . . .18 



White's Account of this Corrected 



How the Holes are Circular . 



Sociality of the Bank-swallow 



The Mining Habits of the Peterel 



ib. 

 19 

 20 

 21 



Wilson's Account of the Peterel at Sea . . . . ib. 

 Superstitions of Mariners accounted for . . . .23 

 Peterels do not carry their Eggs under their Wings . 24 

 The Burrowing Owl (Strix Cunicularia) . . . .25 

 The Account of Charles Bonaparte . . . . ib. 

 Its Sociality with the Prairie-dog 26 



CHAPTER II. GROUND BUILDERS. 



Requisites of a Bird's Nest 27 



Internal Heat of the Earth important . . . .28 



Its Temperature known to Birds 29 



Moisture not. always Injurious to Hatching . . . ib. 



Nest of the Willet and other Birds 30 



The Eider-duck (Somateria Mollissima) . . . . ib. 



Localities chosen for Nestling 31 



Preference for small Islands ib. 



Female plucks the Down from her Breast . . .32 



Elasticity of the Down ib. 



The Redbreast (Sylvia Ritbecula) 33 



Redbreast's Nest at Christinas ib. 



Fanciful Account of a .Redbreast's Nest . ... 34 



