20 BIRDS' NESTS 



ment do not make a nest typical of their species, and 

 in most cases content themselves with forming the 

 merest rudiments of a nest, merely heaping a lot of 

 material together upon which to lay their eggs ; and 

 in some cases they do not make even this slight pro- 

 vision. This may be instinct or hereditary habit, the 

 blind impulse to make a nest ; but without tuition, or 

 some standard to work by, it is a failure. The same 

 remarks apply to man ; for with all his boasted 

 reason he is equally incapable of building a habita- 

 tion peculiar to his race, if he has not seen one or 

 been initiated in the secrets of its construction. 

 Savage man neither alters nor improves any more 

 than the birds, and each of his great races possesses 

 a peculiar style of architecture. The Arab and the 

 American Indian dwell in tents, the negro builds a 

 hut, and the bushman lives in caves, whilst the Malay 

 erects his house on posts. Now transfer an infant of 

 any one of these races of men, say, to a civilised land 

 like Europe, and is it conceivable that when grown 

 up to manhood he would set to work to build a tent, 

 a hut, or a house on posts according to the particular 

 race to which he belongs, instinctively and with no 

 instruction ? If man is so helpless in such a case, 

 why should not a bird be the same ? Why should 

 a creature infinitely below man in so many of its 

 intellectual attributes be so far in advance of him 

 in this particular respect ? The same remarks apply 

 equally to a bird's song and to the language of man- 



