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THE HARMONIES OF NATURE 



The bird takes care to make the sloping tunnel only just large 

 enough to admit the passage of its body, so as to render its 

 defence more easy, but the perpendicular hole in which it 

 resides is quite large and roomy, so as to deserve the name of a 

 chamber. 



The Woodpecker's Nest. 



Many European birds, such as the chaffinch or the pensile 

 warbler, are remarkable for the neatness or ingenious con- 

 struction of their dwellings. 'The nest of the chaffinch,' says 

 the late venerable sage of Walton Hall, ' is a paragon of per- 

 fection. He attaches lichens to the outside of it by means of 

 the spider's slender web. In the year 1805, when I was on a 

 plantation in Guiana, I saw the hummingbird making use of 

 the spider's web in its nidification, and then the thought struck 

 me that our chaffinch might probably make use of it too. On 

 my return to Europe, I watched a chaffinch busy at its nest ; it 

 left it and flew to an old wall, took a cobweb from it, then con- 

 veyed it to its nest, and interwove it with the lichen on the out- 

 side of it. The pensile warbler shows equal architectural skill ; 



