92 ANIMALS OF NO IMPORTANCE. 



While watching swifts at work I have often noticed how 

 they get in one another's way. In one instance the nest 

 had so far progressed as to assume the form of a curved 

 ledge about one inch in breadth, just large enough to hold a 

 single bird. It sometimes happened that while one bird was 

 at work on the nest its companion would return and instead 

 of waiting for the first swift to vacate the nest, would calm- 

 ly sit upon that bird ; an intrusion which the latter did not 

 appear to resent. The bird on top would then proceed to 

 glue to the nest the material it had brought ; but naturally 

 the lower bird would be in the way. Upon one occasion 

 the last-comer glued the feather he had brought on to the 

 tail of his companion under the impression that it was part 

 of the nest ; and great must have been his surprise when 

 she flew off with what should have been the latest addition 

 to the nest attached to her tail ! 



Judged, then, by human standards, birds are in many res- 

 pects incredibly foolish, and in others marvellously clever. 

 They are neither the one nor the other. The mistake 

 is ours, for birds and other animals should not be regarded 

 from human standpoints. It is precisely because man will 

 persist in making this mistake that so much nonsense has 

 been written about the perfection of the architecture of birds 

 and the extraordinary delicacy of their work. As a matter 

 of fact, a piece of straw bears to a swift much the same re- 

 lation as a 2O-foot bamboo pole does to a man. A human 

 workman who constructed of supple poles, an inch in 

 diameter and six feet in length, a basket the size of a room, 

 would not consider that he was doing fine work. Nor does 

 a swift when it builds its nest. If we take into considera- 

 tion the size of the bird that makes it, the average nest is a 

 very coarse structure. It, nevertheless, fulfils its function, 

 which is all that Nature requires. 



I remember on one occasion hearing the following con- 

 versation between a small boy and an old gentleman 

 who were watching a canary eating seed. Said the old 

 gentleman, who was doubtless desirous of improving the 



