BIRDS' NESTS 



the other hand the elaborate and wonderful homes 

 of the hornet, the sticklebat, and the dormouse (to 

 quote but three of the commonest examples) are 

 rarely seen and even less frequently examined by 

 ordinary observers. 



It is a somewhat remarkable fact, that notwith- 

 standing the great and increasing popularity with 

 which nests are regarded as objects of admiration, 

 no work has within the past seventy years been 

 written entirely devoted to them ; whilst little less 

 extraordinary, down to comparatively recent times 

 they have been almost entirely discarded by the 

 biologist, and their scientific study has been almost 

 completely ignored. This is all the more remarkable 

 when we bear in mind that their investigation not 

 only involves a study of the mental attributes of 

 the birds that build them, but is very intimately 

 associated with the habits and structure of their 

 feathered builders. Seventy years ago Rennie pub- 

 lished a book about nests, entitled The Architecture 

 of Birds', whilst in 1868 Dr Wallace promulgated 

 his celebrated " Theory of Birds' Nests," by far the 

 most scientific contribution to the subject which 

 had then been published. Darwin and one or two 

 other naturalists have briefly touched upon the 

 subject; whilst the late J. G. Woods' popular 

 treatment of birds' nests, in his Homes without 

 Hands, practically exhausts the special literature of 

 caliology. There are of course many memoirs and 



