108 BIRDS. 



was taken from each nest, rarely two, and I always took 

 every care not to frighten the sitting bird. There are 

 critics of this kind of pastime who admit of no distinc- 

 tion in the matter of degree, and to them I prefer not 

 to excuse myself. It is possible, however, that they 

 may extend their mercy in consideration of my never 

 having shot a single song-bird, all my stalking in that 

 direction having been done with binoculars. The study of 

 nests is an interesting one, but unfortunately it is among 

 those that cannot be pursued in the armchair ; and the 

 existing regulations preclude the necessity of my entering 

 into the subject as fully as I might otherwise have been 

 inclined to do. What will at once strike the observer, 

 however, is that this architecture is surely the result of 

 instinct, and not of memory or imitation. One writer has 

 objected to what he is pleased to call the " loose " employ- 

 ment of the word " skill " in connection with this perform- 

 ance. Skill, he says, is the result of education. But skill 

 is, in my humble opinion, too old a word for any gentle- 

 man to begin playing tricks with now ; and it is almost 

 as applicable to the nest-building bird as to the human 

 mechanic and engineer. The great difference in merit 

 shown by various nests is another fact which soon makes 

 itself felt. Not alone do we note the difference between 

 the beautiful dwelling of the goldfinch and the mere plat- 

 form of the dove or bullfinch, but even in birds that nest 

 in different situations there is a perceptible difference in 

 the amount of care lavished by the same bird. Thus, it is 

 generally conceded that the nests of birds that rear their 

 young in darkness build a very careless nest ; and in the 

 common instance of the house-sparrow, it is notorious that 

 the nest when built in open tree-tops is a more elaborate 

 domed structure than the mass of grass, paper, and rubbish 

 that suffices it in our roofs. There are certain orthodox 

 sites for the nests of each group of birds, but these are 

 open, like everything else in the ordering of their lives, to 

 exceptions. Thus the wood-pigeon nests, as a rule, amid 

 the topmost branches of firs and beeches, but I have seen 



