go ANIMALS OF NO IMPORTANCE. 



by 9-35, when I left the verandah until 10-9. At 10-30 one 

 of the birds came to the nest, but carried nothing in its 

 beak ; it stayed about one minute in the nest. Through- 

 out the day the birds returned at intervals of about 45 

 minutes, as often as not without bringing any building 

 material. It is, therefore, safe to assert that on an average 

 each bird does not add more than twenty feathers, etc., to the 

 nest in the day, although they work from sunrise to sunset. 



When we consider the multifarious nature of the objects 

 that are utilised as building materials for the nest, the slow 

 rate at which the work proceeds becomes the more remark- 

 able. In the present instance there were quantities of 

 straw and pieces of dead grass strewn in the hedge and on 

 the ground in front of the bungalow ; but the swifts passed 

 these by unnoticed. It is true that the birds had to find 

 food, and when one's diet consists of flies, it takes some little 

 time to obtain a good square meal. The search for food, 

 however, cannot occupy more than a fraction of the day ; 

 for if a swift required more time to secure its food how could 

 it manage later on both to feed itself and to procure meals 

 for its young? We are, therefore, driven to conclude that it 

 is nothing but lack of intelligence which makes the swift so 

 slow a workman. It may possibly be asserted that the swift 

 is an exceptionally stupid bird. I submit that this is not 

 the case. The jackdaw is generally admitted to be one of 

 the cleverest of the fowls of the air. At Wells Cathedral 

 hundreds of daws build nests behind the stone statues which 

 stand in niches in the Cathedral wall. The cavities are 

 such that no sticks of which the length exceeds eighteen 

 inches can be used in the construction of the nest, yet the 

 daws continually bring up sticks as long as seven, feet. 

 These are dropped, as are many of a suitable length, 

 during the efforts of the bird to bring them into the niches. 

 The sticks which the daws thus let fall have to be cleared 

 away every day or they would soon block up the entrance to 

 the Cathedral. No one, with the solitary exception of Mr. 

 Hudson, has ever seen one of these birds attempt to pickup 



