APPENDIX. 371 



not sense to draw it in lengthways: White (Letter fi) describes some mar- 

 tins which year alter year lnult their nests on an exposed wall, and year after 

 year they wore washed down. Tlie Furnaritu cwuculariu* in S. America 

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

 Researches." p. 216) these little birds vainly bu r rowing numerous holes 

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

 .■aim: that the walla were not nearly thick enough for their nests. 

 Mai y variations cannot in any way he accounted for : the Totanus maeu- 

 larivt (Peabody, "Boston Journ. Nat. Hist.," vol. iii, p. 210) lays her egga 

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

 Mr. BlackwaU has recorded the curious ease of a yellow Bunting (Emhr- 

 nz'i eiirineUa) given in " Yarrell's British Birds," which laid its eggs and 

 hatched them on the hare ground ! this bird generally builds on or very close 

 to the ground, but a case it recorded of its having built at a height of seven 

 let. A nest of a Chaffinch (FringxUa ccelebs ; " Annals and Mag. of Nat . 

 History," vol. viii, 1812. p. 2M) has been described, which was bound by a 

 piece of whipcord passing once round a branch of a pine tree, and then 

 liimh interwoven with the materials of the nest: the nest of the chaffinch 

 can almost be recognized by the elegant manner with which it is coated 

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

 in which bits of paper were used for lichen. The Thrush (T. mvsicus) 

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

 under sheds ; and two eases are known of its having built actually on the 

 'id in long grass and under turnip-leaves (W.Thompson, "Not. Hist. 

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

 Rev. W. I). Fox informs me that an "eccentric pair of blackbirds" 



1 /' me r ula) for three ( secutive years built in ivy against a wall, and 



always lined their I'cst with black horse-hair, though there was nothing to 



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



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



nests of two Redstarts, of which one alone was lined with a profusion of 



white feathers. The Golden-crested \\ ran iMr. Sheppard in" Linn. Trans.," 



vol. xv, |>. 1 I) usually builds an open nest attached to the under side of a 



til •■hiai.ch. hut sometimes 00 the branch, and Mr. Sheppard has seen one 



'• pendulous with a bole on one side." Of the wonderful neat of the Indian 



\\ . iver-bird (Ploeeu* PkiHppetuit, " Proo. Z00L 80c.," July 27, 18.V2), about 



one or two ni every fifty have an upper chamber, in which the males nest, 



red by the widening of the stem of the neat with a pent-house added 



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



gu.id el servers (Sheppard in " Linn. Trans.," vol. xv, p. 14, and Blaokwall 



■ I l>\ farrell, "British Birds," voL i, p. 444). "There are few birds 



which do not occasionaUy vary from the general form iii building their 



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



l„, ..,-.» I],,, constructive powers in rerj different de grees of perfection, for the 



tome individuals are finished in a manner gieatlj superior to tl 



ol others." 



< f tl kbove given, such as the Totanus either making a neat 



■ 11 the bare ground, or tint of the Water-outel making or not 

 making a dome to r ught, perhaps, to be called ■ double instinct 



rather than a variation. But the most ouni of a double instinct which 



1 have met with, is that of the Sylvia cittu olo given bj Dr. P Sai 1 i " anna. 

 Nat ." tome 11, |i 126). This bird in Pira annuallj makea two nests 1 

 the autumnal nest is formed bv leaves being sewn together with spiders' webs 

 and the down of plant-, and is placed m i . the vernal nest 1- p 



in tufts of grass in OOrn-flelds, and the h i\ BJ are DOi sew n tOget her ; but the 



