CHaP, XXXIII.] INSTINCT IN BIRDS. 258 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Peculiarities and Instinct of Different Animals. 
I cannor conclude these hasty sketches without remarking chat 
few people are aware of the numberless subjects of interest and 
observation to be found in the habits and structure of the com- 
monest birds and animals, which pass before our eyes every day 
of our lives. How perfectly are all these adapted to their 
respective modes of living and feeding. In every garden and 
shrubbery the naturalist finds amusement in watching its living 
tenants. Look at the chaffinch, how it adapts the colour and 
even the shape of its nest to the spot in which it is placed, 
covering the outside with materials of the same colour as the bark 
of the tree in which it is. So do also all the other small birds. 
Again, they line their nests with materials of the same colour as 
their eggs. The chaffinch lines it with wool and feathers mixed 
together, giving it a background of nearly the same hue as the 
shell of the eggs. The greenfinch lines it with light-coloured 
feathers, collected from the poultry-yard, as her eggs are nearly 
white. The yellowhammer has a greyish egg with stripy marks ; 
she lines her nest with horsehair. The robin’s eggs being of a 
reddish-brown, she makes use of dried grass and similar sub- 
stances. The prevailing colour of the hedge-sparrow’s nest is 
green, and her eggs are of a greenish-blue; and in the same 
manner all our common and unregarded birds adapt both the 
outside and the lining of their nests to the colour of the sur- 
rounding substances and that of their own eggs respectively. In 
the same manner they all have bills adapted to the food on which 
they live—the grain-feeding birds having short, strong man- 
dibles, while those of the insectivorous birds are longer and more 
slender, and as perfectly adapted for searching in crannies and 
corners for the insects and eggs that may be hidden there, as the 
former are for cutting and shelling the seeds and grain on which 
they feed. : 
