128 ON THE INSTINCTS OF BIRDS. 
merely as a matter of convenience; for I have known 
this minute bird bring long pieces of straw from a 
considerable distance with much toil, and, with in- 
credible perseverance, mould the stubborn material to 
its purpose, solely because its colour approached that 
of a garden-wall, a hole in which, occasioned by the 
giving way of a loose brick, it had chosen to place its 
nest in. 
A lady, who kept Canaries, was obliged to separate 
a young brood from their parents, having observed 
that the male bird stripped off the soft feathers from 
their necks and wings for the purpose of lining a 
newly constructed nest with them, notwithstanding a 
supply of old feathers had been put into the cage. 
From this remarkable fact, for which I am indebted 
to Dr. W. Henry, it is evident that Canaries do not 
collect materials for their nests indiscriminately, but 
that they make a selection, in which they are directed 
by powers of a higher order than those of a merely 
instinctive character. 
Mr. White, in his ‘ Natural History of Selborne,’ 
page 59, informs us that in Sussex, where there are 
very few towers and steeples, the Jackdaw builds 
annually under ground in deserted rabbit-burrows. 
The same author remarks also (pp. 175, 176) that 
many Sand-Martins nestle and breed in the scaffold- 
holes of the back wall of William of Wykeham’s 
stables, which stands in a very sequestered enclosure, 
facing a large and beautiful lake, near the town of 
