2x6 Habit and Instinct. 



■with him. ... It is usual with canary fanciers to take out 

 the nest constructed by the parent birds, and to place a 

 felt nest in its place, and when the young are hatched and 

 old enough to be handled, to place a second clean nest, 

 also of felt, in the box, removing the other. This is done 

 to prevent acari. But I never knew that canaries so reared 

 failed to make a nest when the breeding time arrived. I 

 have, on the other hand, marvelled to see how like a wild 

 bird's the nests are constructed. It is customary to supply 

 them with a small set of materials, such as moss and hair. 

 They use the moss for the foundation, and line with the 

 finer materials, just as a wild goldfinch would do, although, 

 making it in a box, the hair alone would be sufficient for 

 the purpose. I feel convinced nest-building is a true 

 instinct." 



This view of Mr. Jenner Weir's is based, it will be seen, 

 on personal observation which is well to the point. Here 

 is another piece of direct evidence. Mr. John S. Budgett, 

 a careful observer, placed in 1890 a greenfinch's egg under 

 a canary, and this in due course was hatched, the young 

 bird proving to be a hen. In the following autumn he 

 bought a caged bird, a cock, probably of the same year, 

 and in the succeeding spring turned them out into an 

 aviary with furse and box bushes in it. Materials of 

 suitable kind were supplied — twigs, roots, dried grass, 

 moss, feathers, sheep's-wool, and horsehair. The hen 

 soon began to build her nest, while the cock did not 

 seem to take the slightest interest in her proceedings. Mr. 

 Budgett never saw him with a twig in his mouth. In 

 a few days she had finished her nest, and Mr. Budgett 

 having sought and found several wild greenfinches' nests, 

 made careful comparisons. Taking them as a whole, he 

 says, the aviary nest was like the wild ones in every 

 particular, made of wool, roots and moss, lined with 



