ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 



249 



curve, has been a thousand and a thousand times pressed against his 

 bosom, his heart, certainly with much disturbance of the respiration, 

 I perhaps with much palpitation. 



-^ It is quite otherwise with the habitat of the quadruped. 



He comes into the world clothed ; what need has he of a nest ? 

 Thus, then, those animals which build or burrow labour for 

 themselves rather than for their young. A skilful miner is 

 the mountain rat, in his oblique tunnel, which saves him from 

 the winter gale. The squirrel, with hand adroit, raises the 

 pretty turret w T hich defends him from the rain. The great 

 engineer of the lakes, the beaver, foreseeing the gathering of 

 the waters, builds up several stages to which he may ascend at 

 pleasure ; but all this is done for the individual. The bird 

 builds for her family. Carelessly did she live in her bright leafy- 

 bower, exposed to every enemy ; but the moment she was no 

 longer alone, the hoped for and anticipated maternity made 

 her an artist. The nest is a creation of love. 



Thus, the work is imprinted with a force of 

 extraordinary will, of a passion singularly persever- 

 ing. You see in it especially this fact, that it is not, 

 like our works, prepared from a model, which 

 settles the plan, conducts and regulates the 

 labour. Here the conception is so thoroughly 

 in the artist, the idea so clearly defined, that, 

 without frame or carcase, without preliminary 

 support, the aerial ship is built up piece by 

 piece, and not a hitch disturbs the ensemble. 

 '', All adjusts itself exactly, symmetrically, in 

 perfect harmony ; a thing in- 

 finitely difficult in such a de- 



10 A 



