REDBREAST. 



405 



she buildeth with leaves a long- porch before the door-way, — the which, 

 when going out to feed, she covereth up with leaves." But as if some- 

 what sceptical himself respecting- his own description, he subjoins : — 

 " These things which I now write, I observed when a boy, though I do 

 not deny that she may nidificate otherwise, and if any one curious in 

 such matters hath observed her build differently, it will be a gratifica- 

 tion to me to learn the same : I have related candidly that which I have 

 seen." 1 



Now I have not a doubt that in this instance Turner was deceived 

 by some dreaming fancy, yet is it afterwards copied by almost every 

 naturalist, from Aldrovand and Willughby down to Buff on and Bewick. 

 After the nest is built, Willughby tells us the bird often strews it with 

 leaves, preserving only a narrow winding entrance under the heap, and 

 even shuts the mouth of it with a leaf when she goes abroad. 2 The 

 only circumstance which could have led to such a mistake, is, that as 

 the Redbreast makes its nest at the root of a tree, a few leaves 

 might have been accidentally drifted over the entrance by the wind ; 

 for among some hundreds of these nests which I have seen, I never 

 met with one covered in at the top with any sort of material, piled up 

 for the purpose by the bird, though I have often seen a tuft of grass, a 

 layer of natural-grown moss, or part of the root of a tree projecting 

 over it. 



I should have passed over another part of Turner's original account, 

 had it not been used as an illustration of his peculiar views of instinct 

 by the late Dr. Mason Good. " All the different species of birds," 

 says he, " in constructing their nests, not only adhere to a peculiar 

 plan, but wherever they can obtain them, to peculiar kinds of materials: 

 if these materials be not to be procured, the accommodating power of 

 the instinctive principle directs them to others, and suggests the best 

 substitutes. Thus the Redbreast uniformly prefers oak leaves as a 

 lining for her nest, wherever she can acquire them, but if these be not 

 to be had, she supplies the want by moss and hair." 3 So far, however, 

 from preferring oak leaves for a lining, I am bold to say, that these are 

 seldom if ever used even for the foundation of the Redbreast's nest, 

 which is always neatly made of moss and grass, and lined with hair, 

 and sometimes (not always) with feathers intertwined. 



Dr. Good's inference seems to have been made from a comparison of 



1 Avium Histor. Princip. 2 Ornithologia, p. 160, and Bewick, i. 236, ed. 1826. 

 3 Good's Book of Nature, ii. 137, 1st edit. 



