APRIL. 



sive years. This, and most other birds which 

 build about the habitations of men, very com- 

 monly depart from that regularity of instinct 

 which prompts them to employ only material 

 of a certain kind in, their nests, and gather up 

 pieces of cotton, shreds of cloth, and even 

 needles and thread, which have been found 

 worked up into these curious, motley fabrics. 

 The same departure from the uniformity of 

 material may be observed in situations where 

 the article commonly used is not to be found ; 

 otherwise, in selection of materials, in the de- 

 gree of ingenuity displayed in putting them 

 together, in choice of situation, every bird ad- 

 heres exactly to the practice of its species and 

 ancestry, and that without instruction. This is 

 one of the marvels of instinct. 



In the barn there is the owl ; and amongst 

 the old crooked trees of the orchard a great 

 variety of bird-habitations. In one hollow tree 

 the wry-neck has built ; in another the ox-eye ; 

 in a third the starling. The missel-thrush has 

 constructed a nest large as a man's head, of 

 hay and wool, which often hang in large 

 waving locks, in the pear-tree. Its eggs, like 

 those of the water-hen, and the crake, are 



