284 FIELD ZOOLOGY. 



birds in the scale of life. Here, again, they exhibit a 

 resemblance to their human neighbors. We say of one 

 farmer, he is thrifty, his farm is well-kept; of another, 

 he is shiftless, and everjilihing is at loose ends. House- 

 keepers are slovenly, untidy, or disorderly; or they are 

 industrious, orderly, artistic, neat — the other sort of 

 homekeepers about whom we would prefer to think. 

 These traits seem human and not to be applied to other 

 animals. But it is to be accepted as true that these 

 notions, along with many other traits and powers in this 

 wonderfully complex nature or being of ours, have their 

 roots deeper than the soil in which we grow; and we shall 

 understand ourselves better for studying and seeking 

 out the glimpses, and sometimes clear evidences, of 

 our own powers in animals lower in the life scale than 

 ourselves. 



The instincts clustering about home and home- 

 making, and care for the young, are among the finest 

 of all the instincts. And nowhere, not even the human 

 tribe excepted, are these instincts more clearly in evidence 

 than among the members of the higher orders of birds; 

 indeed the care found among the lower orders of animals 

 is often superior to the care vouchsafed to the helpless 

 infant by some human parents. 



With these instincts as with others that have been 

 mentioned, we find various degrees of excellence in the 

 making and tending of the nest. Some birds are slovenly, 

 careless nest-builders, scooping out a hollow in the 

 sand of the sea beach, or pushing a loose pile of drift 

 together to make the hollow in which to lay the eggs. 

 Crows and jays make nests that look as if they might fall 

 to pieces if the female birds did not sit upon them very 

 carefully. Blackbirds' nests are little better. English 



