THE NESTS OF DIFFERENT BIRDS. 123 



blackcap, and others, which will hatch their young 

 nearly at the same period, or in July, will require no- 

 thing of the kind. A few loose bents and goose-grass, 

 rudely entwined with perhaps the luxury of some scat- 

 tered hairs, are perfectly sufficient for all the wants of 

 these ; yet they are birds that live only in genial tem- 

 peratures, feel nothing of the icy gales that are natural 

 to our pretty indigenous artists, but flit from sun to sun, 

 and we might suppose would require much warmth in 

 our climate during the season of incubation; but it is 

 not so. The green-finch places its nest in the hedge 

 with little regard to concealment ; its fabric is slovenly 

 and rude, and the materials of the coarsest kinds : while 

 the chaffinch, just above it in the elm, hides its nest 

 with cautious care, and moulds it with the utmost atten- 

 tion to order, neatness, and form. One bird must have 

 a hole in the ground ; to another a crevice in a wall, or 

 a chink in a tree, is indispensable. The bull-finch re- 

 quires fine roots for its nest ; the gray fly-catcher will 

 have cobwebs for the outworks of its shed. All the 

 parus tribe, except the individual above-mentioned, 

 select some hollow in a tree or cranny in a wall, and, 

 sheltered as such places must be, yet will they collect 

 abundance of feathers and warm materials for their in- 

 fants' beds. Endless examples might be found of the 

 dissimilarity of requirements in these constructions 

 among the several associates of our groves, our hedges, 

 and our houses ; and yet the supposition cannot be en- 

 tertained for a moment that they are superfluous, or not 

 essential for some purpose with which we are unac- 

 quainted.* By how many of the ordinations of supreme 



* I remember no bird that seems to suffer so frequently from the 

 peculiar construction of its nest, and by reason of our common ob- 

 servance of its sufferings obtains more of our pity, than the' house 

 marten. The rook will at times have its nest torn from its airy site, 

 or have its eggs shaken from it by the gales of spring ; but the poor 

 marten, which places its earthy shed beneath the eave of the barn, 

 the roof of the house, or in the corner of the window, is more gene- 

 rally injured. July and August are the months in which these birds 

 usually bring out their young ; but one rainy day at this period, at- 

 tended with wind, will often moisten the earth that composes the 

 nest ; the cement then fails, and all the unfledged young ones are 



