CHAPTEE XIV. 



A SHOET STUDY OF BIRDS' NESTS. 



HAVING read with great delight Mr. Wallace's essays 

 on the "Philosophy of Birds' Nests," and his theory 

 concerning them, it occurred to me to see how far his 

 views were applicable to the hundreds of nests that were 

 yearly built in my favorite haunts about home ; for, 

 whether I rambled by the river's shore, or the wooded 

 creek-bank nearer by, in the open meadows or the upland 

 fields, by the weedy angles of the zigzag fences, or in the 

 depths of the woods, I soon noticed that, whatever else 

 might be wanting, some one kind of bird, at least, had 

 found in every locality a fitting place for its nest. 



At first, there appeared to be such a similarity in the 

 nests that I almost came to the conclusion that birds could 

 only construct them in one manner, and were incapable 

 of varying from it ; that they did not exercise any judg- 

 ment in the work, and that to-day their nests were but 

 fac-similes of those built by their remotest ancestors in 

 the indefinite past. 



This idea of fixedness of habit was formerly very gen- 

 erally, and to a limited extent is still, taught as true not 

 only of birds but of all animals. It is the natural out- 

 come of the old creative theory of life, and is, I need 

 scarcely add, utterly false. 



Whatever may have been the peculiarities of the 

 original bird-like creature, before losing reptilian and as- 



