THE WEAVER BIRDS. 135 



into a long tunnel or neck. The rim of this neck is 

 never bound or hemmed. It grows thinner and more 

 flimsy to the end, which is frayed out, affording no 

 firm hold to an enemy. The most daring squirrel 

 will not attempt to clamber round it and get into the 

 nest, especially if there is a well beneath. The 

 mother and her young in their water-tight and wind- 

 proof chamber will swing in perfect security from 

 every foe but man. There is a curious difference of 

 opinion about the number of eggs laid by the Weaver 

 Bird. Jerdon says two, or at the most three, and is 

 supported by Hume and other good authorities ; but 

 the late Mr. Barnes protests that he has examined 

 scores of nests and never found fewer than four, and 

 sometimes as many as six. I have never been a 

 plunderer of nests, but from such experience as I have 

 I should be inclined to agree with Jerdon. It is not 

 impossible that the nests in which Barnes found five 

 or six eggs were chummeries occupied by more than 

 one family. 



It used to be the fashion to speak of beasts and 

 animals as being endowed with some mysterious 

 faculty called " instinct," which was a sort of compen- 

 sation to them for the want of reason. When a bird 

 made a wonderful nest it was supposed to be working 

 by this faculty, without using its intelligence. I 

 think this way of speaking, or thinking, is pretty well 

 exploded now, and I should like to explode it a little 

 more. It is quite true that the lower animals have 

 by inheritance the knowledge of many things which 

 we have to learn for ourselves ; but the difference is 

 one of degree, not of kind. So when a bird does a 

 clever thing you may be sure it is a clever bird* 



