CLEANLINESS. 11 



Bechstein ; and in water near their haunts we see 

 them every day assiduously bathing. In confinement, 

 again, they wash much oftener than the seed-eaters. 

 A redbreast, which we at present possess, will wash 

 at any hour of the day or night when he is furnished 

 with water, and his feathers are scarcely dry before 

 he is eager to renew his bath, which he would do, if 

 permitted, a dozen times a day ; while a goldfinch 

 in a neighbouring cage does not care about washing 

 above once or twice a week. A fine black-cap, which 

 is also in our possession, is nearly as fond of frequent 

 washing as the redbreast*. Mr. Sweet finds that 

 when his more tender birds are allowed to wash as 

 often as they would do, particularly in winter, it is 

 apt to prove injurious, and sometimes fatal f. 



" One of the most remarkable propensities that 

 manifest themselves in young birds," says the Hon. 

 and Rev. W. Herbert, "is the ardent desire of 

 washing themselves, in some species, and of dusting 

 themselves, in others, as for instance in the common 

 wren. This, I conceive, must be an instinctive incite- 

 ment. It is barely possible that the little wrens 

 might see through the aperture of their covered nest 

 the parents dusting themselves on the ground in 

 some instances ; but their nests are often placed 

 where this could not be perceived, and the desire is 

 equally powerful in all individuals. On the other 

 hand, the nests of the wood-wren and many others 

 which wash themselves eagerly on the first opportu- 

 nity that presents itself after they can feed themselves, 

 could never have seen the like, their nest having been 

 situated under the roots of a tree upon a dry bank in 

 a wood. This impulse is, therefore, inspired by the 

 Creator ; and it is inspired with a force that in cap- 

 tivity is like unto madness. It is very injurious to a 

 * J. R. t British Warblers, passim. 



