78 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



with materials for the structure. These materials, 

 however, this helper never once attempted to put 

 into their places ; they were regularly and always 

 delivered to the grand architect that was employed 

 in constructing the building." The nest is con- 

 cealed with the greatest art. If during its con- 

 struction a strange visitor has meddled with it, 

 the last writer states, that he has never known the 

 structure proceeded with, the little architect ap- 

 pearing instantly to recognise the fact of an 

 intruder having been there, by the derangement of 

 the symmetry of its beautifully disposed interior. 

 It is supposed that this may account for the number 

 of unfinished nests which are met with in the 

 fields, and which schoolboys, believing to be the 

 work of the male bird while the female is incu- 

 bating, call "cocks' nests." The male, it is said, from 

 a desire of occupying himself during this period, 

 will occasionally construct as many as half-a-dozen 

 nests, in the vicinity of the first. As, however, 

 positive evidence of this fact is still wanting, it is 

 more correct to consider, with the majority of 

 naturalists, these "cocks' nests" to be in reality 

 the unfinished structures of a pair of birds. 

 Perhaps the conjecture thrown out by Mr. Jenyns 



