Animal Intelligence. 863 



ioned buttle method, nnd lu-sts half way between the two extremes, 

 showing plainly that a process of adaptation is going on. A Pennsyl- 

 vania newspaper lately reported a clever piece of work by a pair of 

 these same eave swallows. They had built a nest in the old style under 

 the eaves of a barn, and when it was done, an English sparrow took pos- 

 session. The swallows made frantic efforts to dislodge the intruder, 

 but could not drive her out. Then they went deliberately to work and 

 plastered up the neck of the bottle with mud, burying the sparrow 

 alive, after which they built another nest close by, and occupied it as if 

 nothing had happened." (Youths' Companion, Dec. 27, 1888.) 



A story, something like the above, is related in Ballou's Monthly, as 

 follows: 



' ' The ' Cow-Bunting, ' of New England, never builds a nest. The 

 female lays her eggs in the nests of those birds whose young feed, like 

 her own, on insects and worms, taking care to deposit but one egg in a 

 nest. A cow-bunting deposited an egg in the nest of a sparrow, in 

 which was one egg of the latter. On the sparrow's return what was to 

 be done ? She could not get out the egg which belonged to another, 

 neither did she wish to desert her nest, so nicely prepared for her own 

 young. What did she do ? After consultation with her husband, they 

 fixed on their mode of precedure. They built a bridge of straw and hair 

 directly over the two eggs, making a sort of second story in the house, 

 thus leaving the two eggs below, out of the reach of the warmth of her 

 bod} 7 . In the upper apartment she laid four eggs and reared her four 

 children. In the Museum at Salem, Massachusetts, may be seen this 

 nest, with two eggs imprisoned below. " 



Romanes, from whose work on Animal Intelligence I shall liberally 

 quote, recites many cases of adaptation of instincts to new conditions 

 by the use of intelligence, especially in cases of bees, in changing the 

 shape of their cells, and the direction of the combs ; building from be- 

 low, or from one side, propping up and securing falling comb, &c. Cer- 

 tain humble bees, when prevented from gathering moss to cover their 

 nests, tore up a piece of cloth, carded it with their feet into a mass 

 which they used as moss. Some bees used grafting wax off trees, in- 

 stead of their own propolis ; also oatmeal. Other bees, which naturally 

 tunnel into hard banks to make their cells for the deposit of eggs, will 

 at times avail themselves of holes ready made, as a straw in a thatched 

 roof, a shell, &c. , which they will partition off to suit. Such intelligent 

 variations of instinct might, if practiced long enough in their turn, be- 

 come instinctive. 



A spider lost all its legs but one, and was compelled to adopt the 

 habit of catching its prey by "stalking," because it could not build its 

 web. Afterwards its legs grew out, and it built webs again. 



Birds modify their nests to suit circumstances, taking those of men's 

 make, as wrens, one kind of owl, one Bluebird, the Pewit, Flycatcher, 



