CHAPTER V 



ARCHITECTS OF SPHERICAL 

 DWELLINGS 



The advantage of spherical architecture The astute sparrowAn evil 

 reputation Magpie fortifications False pretences The wren's many 

 houses A tiresome partner Catholic tastes The squirrel's " drey " 

 Changing quarters A Lilliputian genius Sticklebacks' nests 

 " Jack-sharps" and "tinkers" Homeric combats Making a 

 home Wedding finery Bringing home the partner A careful father 

 Fierce battles. 



ATIMALS which build nests shaped like a hollow ball, 

 with an opening in the side, use materials similar to 

 those employed in the construction of the cup-like 

 nests which we have already described, but their dwellings 

 have one obvious advantage over the latter in possessing a 

 roof, and thus affording more complete shelter and protec- 

 tion to the inmates. 



Such nests are made not only by many kind of birds, but 

 by mammals also, and strange as it may seem, even by fishes. 



One of the most interesting examples of the spherical style 

 of architecture is furnished by that familiar (in every sense 

 of the word) acquaintance of man, the common Sparrow, 

 whose scientific name of Passer domesticity at once suggests 

 its inveterate habit of attaching itself to human habita- 

 tions. The birds which aroused Evander at dawn by their 



twittering 



Evandrum ex humili tecto lux suscitat alma 

 Et raatutini volucrum sub tegmine cantus 



93 



