174 THE NESTS OF DIFFERENT BIRDS* 



of the kind can be, and it becomes a model for 

 beautiful construction. The gold en- crested wren, 

 a minute creature, perfectly unmindful of any 

 severity in our winter, and which hatches its young 

 in June, the warmer portion of our year, yet builds 

 its most beautiful nest with the utmost attention to 

 warmth ; and, interweaving small branches of moss 

 with the web of the spider, forms a closely com- 

 pacted texture nearly an inch in thickness, lining it 

 with such a profusion of feathers, that, sinking 

 deep into this downy accumulation, it seems almost 

 lost itself when sitting, and the young, when 

 hatched, appear stifled with the warmth of their 

 bedding and the heat of their apartment ; while the 

 whitethroat, the blackcap, and others, which will 

 hatch their young nearly at the same period, or in 

 July, will require nothing of the kind. A few 

 loose bents and goose-grass, rudely entwined with 

 perhaps the luxury of some scattered hairs, are 

 perfectly sufficient for all the wants of these ; yet 

 they are birds that live only in genial temperatures, 

 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 in- 

 cubation ; but it is not so. The greenfinch 

 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 



