Introductory Chapter. 



wonderful things. Let us talk about them. They are all alike 

 in the purpose for which they are intended, but no two families of 

 birds build exactly alike ; all the wrens, for instance, have their 

 kind of nest ; the thrushes have theirs ; so has the swallow tribe ; 

 so has the sparrow, or the rook. They do not imitate one 

 another, but each adheres to its own plan, as God, the great 

 builder and artist, as well as Creator, taught them from the very 

 beginning. The first nightingale, that sang its hymn of joyful 

 thanksgiving in the Garden of Paradise, built its nest just the 

 same as the bird you listened to last year in the coppice. The 

 materials were there, and the bird knew how to make use of 

 them ; and that is perhaps the most wonderful part of it, for she 

 has no implements to work with : no needle and thread, no 

 scissors, no hammer and nails ; nothing but her own little feet 

 and bill, and her round little breast, upon which to mould it ; 

 for it is generally the mother- bird which is the chief builder. 



No sooner is the nest wanted for the eggs which she is about 

 to lay, than the hitherto slumbering faculty of constructiveness is 

 awakened, and she selects the angle of the branch, or the hollow 

 in the bank or in the wall, or the tangle of reeds, or the plat- 

 form of twigs on the tree-top, exactly the right place for her, 

 the selection being always the same according to her tribe, and 

 true to the instinct which was implanted in her at the first. 



So the building begins : dry grass or leaves, little twigs and 

 root-fibres, hair or down, whether of feather or winged seed, 

 spangled outside with silvery lichen, or embroidered with green 

 mosses, less for beauty, perhaps — though it is so beautiful — than 

 for the birds' safety, because it so exactly imitates the bank or 

 the tree-trunk in which it is built. Or it may be that her tene- 



