BIRDS. 



223 



rests ill confident secuiity ; ana, as the poet expresses it, appears 

 wnst bless'd ivhcn most unseen : but if any appearance of danger 

 offers to intrude, the male, that a moment before was so loud 

 and sportive, stops all of a sudden ; and this is a most certain 

 signal to his mate to provide for her own security. 



The nest of little birds seems to be of a more delicate con- 

 trivance than that of the larger kinds. As the volume of their 

 bodies is smaller, the materials of which their nests are composed 

 are generally warmer. It is easy to conceive that small things keep 

 heat a shorter time than those that are liu-ge. The eggs, there- 

 fore, of small birds require a place of more constant warmth that 

 those of great ones, as being liable to cool more quickly ; and ac- 

 cordingly their nests are built warmer and deeper, lined on the in- 

 side with softer substances, and guarded above with a better cover- 

 ing. But it sometimes happens that the little architects are 

 disturbed in their operations, and then they are obliged to make 

 a nest, not such as they wish, but such as they can. The bird 

 whose nest has been robbed several times, builds up her last in 

 a very slovenly manner, conscious that, from the near approach 

 of winter, she must not take time to give her habitation every 

 possible advantage it is capable of receiving. When the nest is 

 finished, nothing can exceed the cunning which the male and 

 female employ to conceal it. If it is built in bushes, the pliant 

 branches are so disposed as to hide it entirely from the view ; if 

 it be built among moss, nothing outwardly appeai-s to show that 

 there is a habitation within. It is always built near those places 

 where food is found in greatest abundance ; and they take care 

 never to go in or out while there is any one in sight. The 

 greater birds continue from their nest for some time, as their 

 eggs take no damage in their absence ; but the little birds are 

 assiduous while they sit, and the nest is always occupied by the 

 male when the female is obliged to seek for sustenance. 



The first food of all birds of the sparrow kind is worms and 

 insects. Even the sparrow and the gold-finch, that when adult 

 feed only upon grain, have both been fed upon insects while in the 

 nest. The young ones, for some time after their exclusion from 

 the shell, require no food ; but the parent soon finds, by their 

 chiri)ing and gaping, that they begin to feel the approaches of 

 hunger, and Hies to provide them a plentiful supply. In her 

 absence they continue to lie close together, and cherish each . 



