j 30 OF INSTINCT. SECT. XVI. 13. z. 



that fubjecl ; to which he returned an anfwer afcertaining the 

 fact, and decided the wager." Aug. 30, 1794. 



So the jackdaw (corvus monedula) generally builds in church 

 fteeples, or under the roofs of high houfes ; but at Selbourn, in 

 Southamptonfhire, where towers and fteeples are not fufficiently 

 numerous, thefe birds build in forfaken rabbit burrows. See a 

 curious account of thefe fubterranean nefts in White's Hiftory 

 of Selbourn, p. 59. Can the Ikilful change of architecture in, 

 thefe birds and the fparrows above mentioned be governed by 

 inftinc~l ? Then they mud have two inftincts, one for common, 

 and the other for extraordinary occafions. 



I have feen green worfted in a neft, which no where exifts in 

 nature : and the down of thiflles in thofe nefts, that were by 

 feme accident conftru&ed later in the fummer, which material 

 could not be procured for the earlier nefts : in many different 

 climates they cannot procure the fame materials, that they ufe in 

 ours. And it is well known, that the canary birds, that are prop- 

 agated in this country, and the finches that are kept tame, will 

 build their nefts of any flexile materials, that are given them. 

 Plutarch, in his Book on Rivers, fpeaking of the Nile, fays, 

 " that the fwallows collect a material, when the waters recede, 

 with which they form nefts, that are impervious to water." And 

 in India there is a fwallow that collects a glutinous fubftance 

 for this purpofe, whofe neft is efculent, and efteemed a princi- 

 pal rarity amongft epicures, (Lin. Syft. Nat.) Both thefe muft be 

 conftrufted of very different materials from thofe ufed by the 

 fwallows of our country. 



In India the birds exert more artifice in building their nefts on 

 account of the monkeys and fnakes : fome form their penfile 

 nefts in the fhape of a purfe, deep and open at top ; others with 

 a hole in the fide ; and others, ftill more cautious, with an en- 

 trance at the very bottom, forming their lodge near the fummit. 

 But the taylor-bird will not even truft its neft to the extremity 

 of a tender twig, but makes one more advance to fafety by fix- 

 ing it to the leaf itfelf. It picks up a dead leaf and lews it to 

 the fide of a living one, its ilender bill being its needle, and its 

 thread fome fine fibres , the lining confifts of feathers, golTamer, 

 and down ; its eggs are white, the colour of the bird light yel- 

 low, its length three inches, its weight three fixteenths of an 

 ounce ; fo that the materials of the neft, and the weight of the 

 bird, are not likely to draw down an habitation fo ilightly fuf- 

 pended. A neft of this bird is preferved in the Britifh Mufe- 

 um, (Pennant's Indian Zoology.) This calls to one's mind the 

 Mofaic account of the origin of mankind, the fir ft dawning of 

 ;>rt there afcribed to them, is that of fewing leaves together. 



For 



