WAYS OF NATURE 
over, a cast-off snake-skin looks very little like a 
snake. It is thin, shrunken, faded, papery, and there 
is no terror in it. Then, too, it is dark in the cavity 
of the nest, consequently the skin could not serve 
as a scarecrow in any case. Hence, whatever its pur- 
pose may be, itsurely is not that. It looks likea mere 
fancy or whim of the bird. There is that in its voice 
and ways that suggests something a little uncanny. 
Its call is more like the call of the toad than that of 
a bird. If the toad did not always swallow its own 
cast-off skin, the bird would probably use that too. ° 
At the best we can only guess at the motives of the 
birds and beasts. As I have elsewhere said, they 
nearly all have reference in some way to the self- 
preservation of these creatures. But how the bits of 
an old snake-skin in a bird’s nest can contribute 
specially to this end, I cannot see. 
Nature is not always consistent; she does not 
always choose the best means to a given end. For 
instance, all the wrens except our house wren seem 
to use about the best material at hand for their nests. 
What can be more unsuitable, untractable, for a nest 
in a hole or cavity than the twigs the house wren 
uses? Dry grasses or bits of soft bark would bend 
and adapt themselves easily to the exigencies of the 
case; but stiff, unyielding twigs! What a contrast 
to the suitableness of the material the hummingbird 
uses — the down of some plant, which seems to have 
a poetic fitness! 
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