NATURAL HISTORY. 



239 



&quot; Ah ! would thou know st how much it better were 



To bide among the simple fisher-swaines ; 

 Ho shrieking owl, no night-jar lodgeth here, 

 Nor is our simple pleasure mixed with pains.&quot; P. FLETCHER. 



they do for the sake of pillaging the materials. With regard to the moss whicn 

 they employ, it is in very small quantity, and they may gather it with their 

 little claws, which are very strong, from trees, on which they can clamber, in the 

 hollows cf which they sometimes breed. Of seven nests found under the head of 

 a church porch, fifteen feet from the ground, there were only three which had a 

 regular cup-shape, and of which the materials were more or less interwoven, and 

 with greater order than usual in sparrows nests ; they had also more moss and 

 fewer ft athers, and were in general less bulky. The best formed of all weighed 

 two ounces and a half; and the largest, five or six times more than the 

 smallest. 



724. Why is it, said, when sivallows fly high, fine weather 

 may be expected ? 



Because swallows follow flies and gnats, and these delight in 

 Warm air ; and as warm air is lighter, and usually moister than 

 cold air, when the warm strata of air are high, there is less change 

 of moisture being thrown down from them by the mixture with 

 cold air. 



But when the warm and moist air is close to the surface, the 

 flies and swallows fly low, and it is almost certain that, as the cold 

 air flows down into it, a deposition of water will take place. 



725. Why is the mouth of the goat-sucker, or night-jar, 

 furnished with long bristly hairs? 



more securely to ensure 

 of 



These birds puisne their 

 insect prey in the night, for 

 which purpose their eyes are 

 peculiarly adapted. When, 

 however, they have captured 

 an insect, their eyes are of 

 no further avail, and the 

 long bristles then act as 

 feelers, enabling the bird 

 prey, and to prevent all possibility 



