FACTORS IN ANIMAL LIFE 



or I would have done it ! From this framework they 

 suspended their nest, the whole structure being 

 about two feet long, and having the eflFect of a small 

 hanging basket. Still more astonishing, when the 

 genuineness of the nest is questioned, a man is 

 found who makes affidavit that he saw the orioles 

 build it ! After such a proceeding, how long will it 

 be before the water-birds are building little rush 

 cradles for their young, or rush boats to be driven 

 about the ponds and lakes by means of leaf sails, or 

 before Jenny Wren will be living in a log cabin of 

 her own construction ? How long will it be before 

 some one makes affidavit that the sparrow with his 

 bow and arrow has actually been seen to kill Cock 

 Robin, and the beetle with his thread and needle en- 

 gaged in making the shroud ? Birds show the taste 

 and skill of their kind in building their nests, but 

 rarely any individual ingenuity and inventiveness. 

 The nest referred to is on a plane entirely outside 

 of Nature and her processes. It belongs to a differ- 

 ent order of things, the order of mechanical contriv- 

 ances, and was of course "made up," probably from 

 a real oriole's nest, and the writer who vouches for 

 its genuineness has been the victim of a clever prac- 

 tical joke — a willing victim, no doubt, since he is 

 looking in Nature for just this kind of thing, and 

 since he believes there is " absolutely no limit to the 

 variety and adaptiveness of Nature even in a single 

 species." If there is no such limit, then I suppose 

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