BIRDS' NESTS. 143 



walks. He was, however, too young to under- 

 stand the hard words which it is necessary to 

 use in scientific books ; and his father thought 

 that if he could foster the taste for natural 

 history, even before he was able to make use 

 of books devoted to the subject, he would 

 hereafter take pleasure in following up the 

 study in good earnest. Mr. Miller had him- 

 self never collected birds' eggs, having con- 

 tented himself with examining the nests, and 

 watching the habits of the birds ; but when he 

 saw his son so anxious to possess specimens of 

 the various kinds of eggs, as he could not 

 with reason say that it was wrong to make 

 a collection of this kind, while it was not wrong 

 to collect birds and insects, he did not for- 

 bid him ; he only insisted that the study should 

 be pursued, as he believed it might be done, 

 in such a way that no cruelty should be prac- 

 tised towards the parent birds. It had been 

 objected to him by a friend that it was an 

 imposition to induce a bird to sit on pebbles, 



