INTRODUCTORY 



ception of the facts, has stated that certain Humming 

 Birds decorate the outside of their nests with the 

 utmost taste, instinctively fastening upon them 

 beautiful pieces of flat lichen, or now and then 

 attaching a pretty feather in the same way. Darwin, 

 in the Descent of Man, unfortunately quotes Gould's 

 deductions, and has thus been misled, like so many 

 other compilers before him, in giving as evidence of 

 a taste for the beautiful in birds, what in reality is 

 nothing of the sort. We believe that in every case 

 of nest decoration apparently prompted by a taste 

 for the beautiful, it will invariably and without ex- 

 ception be found that the primary, we may even say 

 the exclusive, motive is that of concealment ; an effort 

 to evade discovery by harmonising the exterior of the 

 nest with surrounding objects, either by an assimila- 

 tion or blending of colour, or a collection of similar 

 material to that near which the nest is built. Let it 

 be clearly understood, however, that these remarks 

 are in no way intended to convey the idea that birds 

 have no taste for the beautiful. On the contrary, 

 birds as a group have perhaps this aesthetic taste 

 more highly developed than any other living crea- 

 tures, man alone excepted. Some of the most con- 

 vincing evidence of this is furnished by the Bower 

 Birds, which are known to decorate their bowers or 

 places of courtship in a highly elaborate and often 

 gaudy manner. But these *' bowers " have nothing 

 to do with the nests, and are apparently intimately 



