THE NESTS OF DIFFERENT BIRDS. 169 



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 

 incubation ; 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 

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

 with cautious care, and moulds it with the utmost 

 attention to order, neatness, and form. One bird 

 must have a hole in the ground ; to another a cre- 

 vice in a wall, or a chink in a tree, is indispensable. 

 The bull-finch requires fine roots for its nest ; the 

 grey flycatcher will have cobwebs for the outworks 

 of its shed. All the parus tribe, except the indivi- 

 dual 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 infants' beds. Endless 

 examples might be found of the dissimilarity of 

 requirements in these constructions among the seve- 

 ral associates of our groves, our hedges, and our 

 houses ; and yet the supposition cannot be enter- 

 tained for a moment that they are superfluous, or 

 not essential for some purpose with which we are 

 unacquainted *. By how many of the ordinations 



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

 the peculiar construction of its nest, and by reason of our common 



