110 THE FINCHES 



has taught me never to ask any question, when exploring, in regard 

 to the relative beauty of this or that road ? Your rustic and your 

 barn-door fowl are alike here. 



The house-sparrow is another of our finches who has " ideas " on 

 the subject of nest-building. In trees, which lie open to the weather, 

 he prefers a domed residence, but dispenses, to some extent, with 

 such addition, where the projecting eaves or parapets of buildings 

 supply him at once with a roof. 1 This has been called an intelligent 

 adaptation of habits to changed conditions ; but, though it may be 

 so, it seems also possible that the adaptation need not imply much 

 intelligence. In a word, does the sparrow reflect that, having already 

 a dome, he need no longer build one, or, finding that there is one, 

 does he either come to think he has built it, or recognise the fact 

 that it is there ? In the one case there would be intelligence, in the 

 other a mere puzzled acquiescence. A sparrow, no doubt, upon 

 finding itself under the dome of its nest would have certain satisfied 

 sensations, assuring it that all was well. Would it not be likely to 

 receive a similar assurance though the dome took the form of a 

 parapet? The darkness, the quietude, the security all would be there, 

 producing, it seems likely, by association, the actual feeling of having 

 made the nest ; but this would not apply to the cold stone flooring 

 before it had been properly wadded. The fact (as it is asserted to be) 

 that, on these occasions, the dome is not entirely, but only partially, 

 dispensed with, is in favour, I think, of the explanation here offered. 

 Did the thought, " There is a dome ; therefore why build one ? " 

 pass through the mind of the bird, we might expect to find none at 

 all built by it, at least in some instances ; but the sensation of the nest 

 being all that it should be would increase as the building continued, 

 till it became too strong to be resisted, when the work would be 

 abandoned. It seems to me possible, therefore, that this change 

 (which, however, is not universal) may have been brought about 

 rather through the senses than through the intellectual faculties, nor 



1 See Romanes' Animal Intelligence (Int. Scient. Series). 



