2 THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



experience and observation just the same as man- 

 kind. And the more experience a bird has the 

 greater its fund of knowledge. 



In the arts they are indeed our brothers; some- 

 times our best teachers. No better pattern of art 

 can be found than the nest of the long-tailed tit; 

 unless it is that of his fellow- workman and imitator, 

 the chaffinch. His sense of beauty and proportion 

 bespeaks ages of art culture. The nest is often 

 placed among the tiny grey boughs of the rhodo- 

 dendron, just beneath two glorious bunches of 

 crimson blossoms in such a manner that one must 

 believe it was made for display as well as for com- 

 fort. Surely it was never meant to be concealed 1 



Few artists of the bird-world fail to carry out a 

 colour scheme. Exceptions are to be found among 

 the ground birds, which lay eggs practically invisi- 

 ble. Nature is very kind and v^ise, and only those 

 eggs are colourless which are laid in hollows and 

 caves where no one can see them. We find colour- 

 less eggs among the woodpeckers, owls, and wry- 

 necks. One might walk over the plover's or sand- 

 piper's nest in the sand without seeing it. But 

 among the blue jays, sparrows, finches, bluebirds, 

 and numerous others, delicate colourings are liter- 

 ally lavished on the eggs, often in definite patterns. 

 Surely the birds enjoy nature's art! John Clare 



