124 CASE OF A NEST REPAIRED. 



intelligence is our ignorance made manifest ! Even 

 the fabrication of the nests of these little animals ex- 

 ceeds our comprehension we know none of the causes 

 or motives of that unbodied mind that willed them 

 thus. 



One notice more of the parus tribe (the parus caeru- 

 leus), and these little creatures may retire to their leafy 

 shades and be forgotten. I was lately exceedingly 

 pleased in witnessing the maternal care and intelligence 

 of this bird; for the poor thing had its young ones in 

 the hole of a wall, and the nest had been nearly all 

 drawn out of the crevice by the paw of a cat, and part 

 of its brood devoured. In revisiting its family, the bird 

 discovered a portion of it remaining, though wrapped 

 up and hidden in the tangled moss and feathers of their 

 bed, and it then drew the whole of the nest back into 

 the place from whence it had been taken, unrolled and 

 resettled the remaining little ones, fed them with the 

 usual attentions, and finally succeeded in rearing them. 

 The parents of even this reduced family labored with 

 great perseverance to supply its wants, one or the other 

 of them bringing a grub, caterpillar, or some insect, at 

 intervals of less than a minute through the day, and 

 probably in the earlier part of the morning more fre- 

 quently ; but if we allow that they brought food to the 

 hole every minute for fourteen hours, and provided for 

 their own wants also, it will admit of perhaps a thousand 

 grubs a day for the requirements of one, and that a di- 

 minished brood; and give us some comprehension of 

 the infinite number requisite for the summer nutriment 

 of our soft-billed birds, and the great distances gone 

 over by such us have young ones, in their numerous 

 trips from hedge to tree in the hours specified, when 

 they have full broods to support. A climate of mois- 



dashed upon the ground ; and there are some places to which these 

 poor birds are unfortunately partial, though their nests are annually 

 washed down. The projecting thatch of the old farm-house appears 

 to be their safest asylum. The parent birds at times seem aware 

 of the misfortune that awaits them ; as, before the calamity is com- 

 pleted, we may observe them with great anxiety hovering about their 

 nests. 



