xxii INTRODUCTION. 



paragon of perfection and architectural skill, the results of perfect natural 

 tools, they should be regarded as nests, the only object their beauty and 

 perfection serves beinga useful and protective one. 



A bird's beak and its legs and feet are the tools with which its nest is 

 made ; yet neither on the form, the length, or any other peculiarity of 

 these parts does the comparative beauty and perfection of the nest depend. 

 The Wren has a finely pointed bill and long legs : with these tools she 

 builds a well-made nest which seems to owe its perfect form and well-wove 

 walls to the little creature's natural nest-building tools. But the Chaffinch, 

 with her comparatively clumsy bill and short legs, also makes a nest equally 

 well woven, and even rivalling in its external appearance the Wren's 

 abode. The Tits, with their short bills and clumsy legs, build nests in 

 holes in trees and walls structures so poorly made that it is impossible to 

 remove them entire. But the Long-tailed Tit (Acredula caudata and its 

 allies), we know, with similar tools builds a nest in the branches the para- 

 gon of beauty and well-wove perfection ! The Dipper is another instance. 

 The Swift, with its weak bill and short legs, seems unable to make an 

 elaborate nest ; but we know it seeks a hole for its purpose from other 

 motives than its seeming inability to make one, and, as is the case with 

 nearly all hole-building birds, irrespective of their natural tools, it is poorly 

 made. The Swallows and the Martins possess similar tools to those of the 

 Swift, yet they build well-made structures, either fastened to the eaves of 

 buildings or on the beams and ledges in sheds and chimneys. The deli- 

 cate Warblers (as, for instance, the Blackcap, the Whitethroat, and the 

 Garden-Warbler) , all with appliances similar to those of the Wren, make 

 slight net-like nests ; whilst the Finches (as, for instance, the Goldfinch, 

 the Bullfinch, the Redpole, and the Chaffinch), with clumsy beaks and some- 

 what short legs, weave nests well made and beautifully adapted to the 

 purposes they serve. 



The Jay and most birds of the Crow tribe, particularly the Magpie 

 (whose well-made and intricately woven nest is a masterpiece of nest-build- 

 ing art), have powerful and somewhat clumsy bills and feet; yet we know 

 their nests can compare favourably with those of any other class of birds. 

 Many of the clumsy-billed Gulls with webbed feet make well-made nests ; 

 as also do certain Raptores, Herons, the Coot, the Moorhen, the Grebes, 

 the Ducks, and the Swans nests that exhibit the same principles as those 

 of the smaller birds, but of course carried out on a much larger scale. 

 Again, what difference is there between the nest-building tools of the 

 Spar row- Hawk and the Kestrel ? None whatever ; yet the one builds a 

 fairly made nest, and the other never makes a nest at all, and rears its young 

 either in the deserted nests of other birds or on the ledges of the beetling 

 cliffs, on no other resting-place than the bare rocks or the refuse of its 

 food. The Woodpeckers, the Kingfisher, the Starling, and sometimes the 



