DIRDS. 



13 



places, or climates, happen to differ. The red-breast in some 

 parts of England, makes its nest with oak leaves, where they 

 are in greatest plenty ; in other parts with moss and hair. 

 Some birds, that with us make a very warm nest, are less solici- 

 tous in the tropical climates, where the heat of the weather 

 promotes the business of incubation. In general, however, 

 every species of birds has a peculiar architecture of its own ; 

 and this adapted to the number of eggs, the temperature of the 

 climate, or the respective heat of the little animal's own body. 

 Where the eggs are numerous, it is then incumbent to make the 

 nest warm, that the animal heat may be equally diffused to them 

 all. Thus the wren, and all the small birds, make the nest very 

 warm ; for having many eggs, it is requisite to distribute 

 warmth to them in common : on the contrary, the plover, that 

 has but two eggs, the eagle, and the crow, are not so solicitous 

 in this respect, as their bodies are capable of being applied to 

 the small number upon which they sit. With regard to climate, 

 water-fowl, that \vith us make but a very slovenly nest, are 

 much more exact in this particidar in the colder regions of the 

 north. They there take every precaution to make it warm ; 

 and some kinds strip the down from their breasts, to line it with 

 greater security.* 



* The construction and selected situations of the nests of birds, are as re- 

 markable as the variety of materials emplo5'ed in them ; the same forms, 

 places, and aiticles, being rarely, perhaps never, found united by the differ. 

 ent species, which we should suppose similar necessities would direct to a 

 uniform provision. Birds that build early in the spring seem to require 

 warmth and shelter for their young ; and the blackbird and the thrush line 

 their nests with a plaster of loam, perfectly excluding, by those cottage-like 

 Willis, the keen icy gales of our opening year ; yet should accident bereav 

 the parents of their &-st hopes, they wUl construct another, even when 

 Bummer is far advanced, upon the model of their first erection, and witli tlie 

 same precautions against severe weather, when all necessity for such pro- 

 vision has ceased, and the usual temperature of the season rather requires cool. 

 ness and a free circulation of air. The house spai-row will commonly build 

 four or five times in the year, and in a variety of situations, under the 

 warm eaves of our hooses and our sheds, the branch of the clustered fir, or 

 the tliick tall hedge that bounds our garden, &c. ; in all which places, and 

 without the least consideration of site or season, it will collect a great 

 mass of straw and hay, and gather a profusion of feathers from the poultry- 

 yard to line its nest. This cradle for its young, whether under our tiles in 

 March or in July, when the parent bird is panting in the common heat of 

 the atmosphere, has the same provisions made to afford warmth to the brood ; 

 yet this is a bird that is little afl'ected by any of the extremes of oiu- cU- 

 III. B 



