WAYS OF NATURE 



matter. This emergency must have occurred for ages, 

 and it, again, called only for the first step from cause 

 to effect, and called for ftie use of no intermediate 

 agent. If the robin were to hold a leaf or a branch 

 above his mate at such times, that would imply 

 reflection. 



It is said that elephants in India will besmear 

 themselves with mud as a protection against insects, 

 and that they will break branches from the trees 

 and use them to brush away the flies. If this is true, 

 it shows, I think, something beyond instinct in the 

 elephant; it shows reflection. 



All birds are secretive about their nests, and dis- 

 play great cunning in hiding them ; but whether they 

 know the value of adaptive material, such as moss, 

 Kchens, and dried grass, in helping to conceal them, 

 admits of doubt, because they so often use the re- 

 sults of our own arts, as paper, rags, strings, tinsel, 

 in such a reckless way. In a perfectly wild state they 

 use natural material because it is the handiest and 

 there is really no other. The phoebe uses the moss 

 on or near the rocks where she builds; the sparrows, 

 the bobolinks, and the meadowlarks use the dry 

 grass of the bank or of the meadow bottom where 

 the nest is placed. 



The English writer to whom I have referred says 



that the wren builds the outside of its nest of old hay 



straws when placing it in the side of a rick, of green 



moss when it is situated in a mossy bank, and of 



138 



