CHAPTER V. 



NESTS, EGGS, AND YOUNG. 



"jl/TANY people imagine that birds build their 

 *** nests exactly alike, according to an urideviat- 

 ing pattern rigidly fixed for the instinctive guidance 

 of each species ; but such is certainly not the case, 

 although it is truly wonderful how closely the 

 different members of a species adhere to a general 

 type of architecture. 



The fact is, I believe, that birds, like human 

 beings, possess individually varying degrees of in- 

 telligence, skill, and energy, and that differences 

 in any of these qualities are to the close observer 

 plainly marked in the constructive character of their 

 work. Chaffinches, as a rule, build exceedingly 

 neat, cup -shaped nests, as everybody knows, but 

 not infrequently quite a slovenly structure, for the 

 species, may be met with. Sometimes they are 

 composed of green moss and lined with horse-hair 

 only, at others the outside is liberally studded with 

 bits of lichen and curtained with cobwebs, and the 

 inside lined with horse -hair, cow -hair, rabbits' 

 down, and feathers. It is said that bits of lichen 

 are used on the outer walls of the nest to give it 

 a general resemblance to the bark of the branches 

 surrounding it, and although I must admit that in 

 many cases the idea of harmonisation appears to 

 underlie the ornamentation, it is certainly not 



