How Animals Work. 



venient for reticulation. It had naturally placed these 

 outside, because it wanted a smooth surface for the 

 bottom of its nest ; and the beauty of the result was 

 much more dependent on the blossoms than the bird. 

 Nevertheless, I am sure that if you had seen the nest 

 much more, if you had stood beside the architect 

 at work upon it you would have greatly desired to 

 express your admiration to her." One cannot help 

 feeling that, had Ruskin been able to spend more 

 time in the observation of the many treasures of 

 bird architecture which Mr. Gould's collection con- 

 tained, and could have been converted from his 

 bitter antagonism to the truth of evolution, he might 

 have given to the world a Seven Lamps of Bird 

 Architecture. 



There is such a wealth of material to select from 

 that it becomes very difficult to decide which examples 

 of bird architecture shall be chosen as most effective 

 for the present necessarily brief description of bird 

 craftsmanship. I am a great believer in the importance 

 of, if possible, seeing and proving things for yourself; 

 therefore I shall devote the space at my command to 

 a description of some of our familiar British nests, and 

 a few of those tropical nests examples of which are 

 generally to be seen in any good museum collection. 

 Let us take as our first example the nest of the Song 

 Thrush, which may be found in almost any quiet orchard 

 or country hedgerow (Plate XII.). Indeed, if we had 

 the good fortune to spend our childhood days in the 

 country, it is probably the first nest with which we 

 became familiar. It is quite early in the year that the 

 Throstle begins to search for a nesting site, and it is no 



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