198 CONVERSATIONS ON 



work, while he would sing most delightfully 

 for several minutes. After his song was fin- 

 ished, he would go to work again, until he 

 got into a new fit of mischief and frolic, and 

 then he would torment her as before. 



" On the third day the birds began to build 

 the walls, after having repeatedly pressed the 

 bottom, and turned themselves round upon it 

 in all directions, to make the nest solid. They 

 first made a plain border all around ; this they 

 trimmed, arid on it they piled up tufts of cot- 

 ton, which they felted in by beating and press- 

 ing with their breasts and wings ; and if any 

 part stuck out, they worked it in with their 

 bills, so as to make all perfectly smooth and 

 firm. And they worked their nest round the 

 branches near it, just as the chaffinch does. 



" In seven days they finished it. It was as 

 white as snow, and on the outside it was nine 

 inches high, and not smooth or regular in its 

 shape ; but in the inside it was shaped exactly 

 like a hen's egg, with the small end up : the 

 hollow was five inches high, and between 

 four and five inches across ; and it was so 

 neatly felted together that it might have been 

 taken for a piece of fine cloth a little worn; 

 and so close that you could not take away 



