RARE AND CURIOUS NESTS. 
| eee time immemorial it has been the current popular 
belief that birds of the same species never varied their 
style of architecture, but constructed the same form of nest, 
and out of the same materials, as their remotest progenitors 
did, instinct being the principle by which they were guided. 
This opinion, though long since exploded by scientific re- 
search, is still, I am sorry to say, entertained by persons 
who should know better. An examination of nests from 
different and widely-separated localities affords evidence of 
the most convincing character of its erroneousness. Most 
marked differences will always be found to exist in compos- 
ing materials, as these are sure to vary with environment, and 
in a wider degree in the nests of some than in those of other 
species ; even configuration, which is less prone to change, is 
often influenced by circumstances of position and latitude. 
Among the Thrushes, the nest of the Robin is the most 
addicted to variation, and this is not wholly restricted to the 
constituents of its usually mud-plastered domicile, but is 
quite frequently observed to occur in the arrangement of 
materials, and in contour and position as well. Where low 
marshy woods abound on the outskirts of towns and villages, 
as is the case in Southern New Jersey, nests of this species 
have been taken that contrasted in a most wonderful manner 
with those one is accustomed to see in more northern locali- 
ties. The great masses of grayish-green fibrous lichen, 
which depend from shrub and tree in sylvan marshes, are 
most freely used, and from its very nature to mat when 
pressed together all necessity for mud is precluded. 
