curious JESTS. 



FROM time immemorial it has been the current popular 

 belief that birds of the same species never varied their 

 style of architecture, but constructed the same form of nest, 

 and out of the same materials, as their remotest progenitors 

 did, instinct being the principle by which they were guided. 

 This opinion, though long since exploded by scientific re- 

 search, is still, I am sorry to say, entertained by persons 

 who should know better. An examination of nests from 

 different and widely-separated localities affords evidence of 

 the most convincing character of its erroneousness. Most 

 marked differences will always be found to exist in compos- 

 ing materials, as these are sure to vary with environment, and 

 in a wider degree in the nests of some than in those of other 

 species ; even configuration, which is less prone to change, is 

 often influenced by circumstances of position and latitude. 



Among the Thrushes, the nest of the Robin is the most 

 addicted to variation, and this is not wholly restricted to the 

 constituents of its usually mud-plastered domicile, but is 

 quite frequently observed to occur in the arrangement of 

 materials, and in contour and position as well. Where low 

 marshy woods abound on the outskirts of towns and villages, 

 as is the case in Southern New Jersey, nests of this species 

 have been taken that contrasted in a most wonderful manner 

 with those one is accustomed to see in more northern locali- 

 ties. The great masses of grayish-green fibrous lichen, 

 which depend from shrub and tree in sylvan marshes, are 

 most freely used, and from its very nature to mat when 

 pressed together all necessity for mud is precluded. 



