Variety m Nest-Building. 45 



it is necessary for their comfort to assist them in this respect. It may be so ; and yet if the 

 offspring of a wild bird, which never saw a nest built in its life, can construct its own habitation, 

 why should not the offspring of a tame one, which in its turn never saw one built, be able to do 

 the same thing ? The fact is, many of the finches build very slovenly nests as compared with 

 other birds, and birds of the same family vary much in the display of a knowledge of the art of 

 nidification, as every school-boy knows. The character of the nest is there, but the finish is 

 frequently wanting. And so it is with our caged Canaries. One will do its work in the most 

 masterly way and turn out its nest with exquisite finish, while another will content itself with a 

 mere apology, scarcely worth the name. No two build their nests exactly alike : one makes the 

 most perfect cup, so deep that you wonder how she will manage to sit in it without turning up her 

 tail like a fantail pigeon ; another fills up her box, leaving barely the slightest depression in 

 which to deposit her eggs ; another makes an oval cavity ; and another invariably selects the 

 corner of her box, leaving the wood exposed on two sides, much in the same way as we sometimes 

 find a wild bird's nest built against a branch, part of which positively forms a portion of the inside 

 of it. And these birds always do the same thing, if they build half-a-dozen times in the season, 

 and yet somehow always manage to take care of their eggs and their young ones if left alone. 

 Perhaps, with all our consideration and well-meant endeavours to assist them, they know as much 

 about it as we do, and, it may be, a little more. We always begin the season by supplying fully 

 as many boxes as tins ; there is a charm in the eagerness with which birds go to work early in 



FIG. 24. — EGGSIEVE. 



the season which we can never resist, and it is not until the fun begins to get fast and furious, 

 when one nest of young birds begins to tread on the heels of another, that, to save time, and 

 also because our boxes may begin to get foul, we discard them in favour of the ready-made 

 article. Even then we invariably supply moss and soft doe-hair, and leave the hen to fill up her 

 tin to her own liking, which she will very quickly do. 



We have digressed a little, and allowed ourselves to trespass slightly on what is strictly in the 

 province of " general maftagefllent ;" but we have found it difficult to say all we wished about the 

 various kinds of nesting apparatus without doing so in some degree, in support of what we may 

 have had to advance in favour of any particular form or otherwise. 



We find, on referring to our Inventory, that there are not many appliances left to describe ; 

 and we may as well dispose of the most important of those which remain, and then dismiss this 

 portion of our subject. It is well not to have anything to make or to get at a time when it is 

 wanted for use — a fact, the truth of which we all of us experience at some time in our lives, and 

 of which we have now and again been reminded in a practical sort of way, by the furnishing 

 of a mysterious square basket, in connection with the illuminating of a lace-edged bag of bran 

 with hieroglyphics, beautifully rendered in pins' heads, intended to convey the sentiment of a 

 welcome to some expected stranger. 



The egg-sieve, or egg-box, as it is sometimes called, is a requisite, in daily use. It consists of 

 a wooden frame about three inches high and eight or ten inches square, with a top of perforated zinc, 



