APPENDIX. 371 



not sense to draw it in lengtliways : White (Letter 6) describes some mar- 

 tins Avliich year alter year built their nests on an exposed wall, and year after 

 year they were washed down. The Funiarius cunicidarhis in S. America 

 makes a deep burrow in mud-banks for its nest ; and I saw (" Journal of 

 Researches," p. 216) these little birds vainly biuTOwing numerous holes 

 through nmd-walls, over which they were constantly flitting, without thus 

 perceiving that the Avails were not nearly thick enough for their nests. 



Many variations cannot in any way be accounted for : the Totanus macu- 

 la)'k(s (Peabody, "Boston Journ. Nat. Hist.," vol. iii, p. 219) lays her eggs 

 sometimes on the bare groimd, sometimes in nests slightly made of grass. 

 Mr. Blackwall has recorded the curious case of a yellow Bunting (Emfjc- 

 rlza citrinella) given in " Yarrell's British Birds," which laid its eggs and 

 hatched them on the bare ground : this bird generally builds on or very close 

 to the ground, but a case is recorded of its having built at a lieight of seven 

 feet. A nest of a Chaffinch {FringiUa coelehs ; " Annals and Mag. of jS'at. 

 History," vol. viii, 1842, p. 281) has been described, which was bound by si 

 piece of Avhipcord passing once round a bi-anch of a pine tree, and then 

 lirmly interwoven with the materials of the nest : the nest of the chaffincli 

 can almost be recognized by the elegant manner Avith which it is coatetl 

 with lichen ; but Mr. Hewitson (" British Oology," p. 7) has described one 

 in which bits of paper AA-ere used for lichen. The Thrush {T. viusicus) 

 builds in bushes, but sometimes, when bushes abound, in holes of walls or 

 imder sbeds ; and two cases are known of its having built actually on the 

 ground in long grass and under turnip-leaves (W. Thompson, " Nat. Hist. 

 of Ireland," vol. i, p. 136 : Couch, " Illustrations of Instinct," p. 219). Ihe 

 Kev. W. D. Fox informs me that an " eccentric pair of blackbirds " 

 {T. mernla) for three consecutive years built in iAy against a wall, and 

 always lined their nest with black horse-hair, though there Avas nothing to 

 tempt them to use this material : the eggs also Avere not spotted. The 

 same excellent observer has described (in "HcAvitson's British Oology") the 

 nests of two Kedstarts, of wliich one alone Avas lined with a profusion of 

 white feathers. The Golden-crested Wren (Mr. Sheppard in" Linn. Trans.," 

 vol. XV, p. 14) usually builds an open nest attached to the under side of a 

 fir-branch, but sometimes on the branch, and Mr. Sheppard has seen one 

 "pendulous with a hole on one side." Of the wonderful nest of the Indian 

 Weaver-bird {Ploceus PhUippensis, " Proc. Zool. Soc," July 27, 1852), about 

 one or two in every fifty have an upper chamber, in whicli the males ne^f, 

 grooved by the AA'idening of the stem of the nest with a pent-house added 

 to it. I will conclude by adding tAvo general remarks on this head by two 

 good obserAers (Sheppard in " Linn. Trans.," vol. xv, p. 14, and BlackAvall 

 quoted by Yarrell, "British Birds," vol. i, p. 444). "There are few birds 

 which do not occasionally vary from the general form in building their 

 nests." " It is evident," says Mr. BlackAAall, " that birds of the same species 

 possess the constructive poAvers in very different degrees of perfection, for the 

 nests of some individuals are finished in a manner gieatly superior to those 

 of others." 



Some of the cases above given, such as the Totanus either making a nest 

 or building on the bare groimd, or that of the Water-ouzel making or not 

 making a dome to its nest, ought, perhaps, to be called a double instinct 

 ratter than a variation. But the most curious case of a double instinct Avhich 

 I have met with, is that of the Sylvia cl.siicola given by Dr. P. Savi (" Anns, 

 des Sc. Nat.," tome ii, p. 126). This bird in Pisa annually makes two nests ; 

 the autumnal nest is formed by leaves being scaati together AA-ith spiders' Avebs 

 and the down of plants, and is placed in marshes ; the venial nest is placed 

 in tufts of grass in corn-fields, and the leaves are not sewn tocether ; but the 



