THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS’ NESTS. 215 
and that his constitution was not originally adapted, 
and has not since become perfectly adapted, to the 
climate.” 
The Malay races, on the other hand, are no doubt 
very ancient inhabitants of the hottest regions, and 
are particularly addicted to forming their first settle- 
ments at the mouths of rivers or creeks, or in land- 
locked bays and inlets. They are a pre-eminently 
maritime or semi-aquatic people, to whom a canoe is a 
necessary of life, and who will never travel by land if 
they can do so by water. In accordance with these 
tastes, they have built their houses on posts in the 
water, after the manner of the lake-dwellers of ancient 
Europe; and this mode of construction has become so 
confirmed, that even those tribes who have spread far 
into the interior, on dry plains and rocky mountains, 
continue to build in exactly the same manner, and 
find safety in the height to which they elevate their 
dwellings above the ground. 
Why does each Bird build a peculiar kind of Nest? 
These general characteristics of the abode of savage 
man will be found to be exactly paralleled by the nests 
of birds. ach species uses the materials it can most 
readily obtain, and builds in situations most congenial 
to its habits. The wren, for example, frequenting 
hedgerows and low thickets, builds its nest generally of 
moss, a material always found where it lives, and among 
which it probably obtains much of its insect food; but 
it varies sometimes, using hay or feathers when these 
