30 BIRDS' NESTS 



remarkable for the uniformity of the nest type; the 

 Ducks another. With regard to the determining 

 factors in the selection of materials we are as yet 

 almost in complete ignorance. Many things have to 

 be taken into consideration, such as temperature of 

 breeding grounds, special methods of concealing the 

 nest, and so forth. In not a few cases abnormal 

 materials, often of a very curious character, have 

 been known to be selected. Indeed instances of this 

 are repeatedly coming within the experience even of 

 the most ordinary birds'-nester. I have not space to 

 quote many of these instances, much as I should 

 have liked to have done so, but one or two may be 

 mentioned in passing. The abnormal materials 

 worked into the nest of the House Sparrow, string, 

 paper, rags, the wire from lemonade bottles, to 

 mention but a few, is a very familiar instance. Then 

 in some parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire I have 

 known cotton and other waste worked into nests of 

 the Chaffinch and some other species. The late 

 J. G. Wood has recorded that at Soleure, in Switzer- 

 land, certain Wagtails made their nests out of broken 

 watch-springs. Another very remarkable case of 

 abnormal nest materials was that of the Spotted Fly- 

 catcher which made a nest (I believe) in Hyde Park, 

 London, largely from the remains of wax vestas 

 which smokers in "the Row" had thrown down; 

 whilst still more extraordinary was the nest of a 

 Dove-cote Pigeon placed on the roof of the Crystal 



