Birds' Nests 



bier. With no positive difficulty, perhaps, in 

 building at any height whatever, we should 

 certainly expect every species to conform, in 

 this respect, to its instinctive altitude. In this 

 matter of location, it may also be observed that 

 few if any of our species of trees have a system 

 of branching that is more favorable for nest- 

 support than the apple-tree ; and no other kinds, 

 moreover, are so plentiful around most of our 

 country houses ; which explains, I believe, 

 better than any sentimental theory of fondness 

 for human society, the frequency of nests 

 around our homes. Nor do I suppose that 

 the changed habits of barn, cliff, and white- 

 breasted swallows, and of phcebes, in placing 

 their nests on beams, or under eaves, or in arti- 

 ficial bird-houses, instead of fastening them to 

 sand-banks and rocks, as formerly, indicate 

 anything more than a bit of pardonable laziness 

 on their part, and a desire for a drier or firmer 

 support than Nature furnishes. In the case of 

 phoebes, the moss and lichens that still super- 

 fluously decorate their abodes, when under the 

 edge of a piazza, are a survival of their former 

 precaution, when they fastened them to rocks 

 and branches. 



Passing now from land to water birds, we 



147 



