WAYS OF NATURE 



over, a cast-off snake-skin looks very little like a 

 snake. It is thin, shrunken, faded, papery, and there 

 is no terror in it. Then, too, it is dark in the cavity 

 of the nest, consequently the skin could not serve 

 as a scarecrow in any case. Hence, whatever its pur- 

 pose may be, it surely is not that. It looks like a mere 

 fancy or whim of the bird. There is that in its voice 

 and ways that suggests something a little uncanny. 

 Its call is more like the call of the toad than that of 

 a bird. If the toad did not always swallow its own 

 cast-off skin, the bird would probably use that too. 



At the best we can only guess at the motives of the 

 birds and beasts. As I have elsewhere said, they 

 nearly all have reference in some way to the self- 

 preservation of these creatures. But how the bits of 

 an old snake-skin in a bird's nest can contribute 

 specially to this end, I cannot see. 



Nature is not always consistent ; she does not 

 always choose the best means to a given end. For 

 instance, all the wrens except our house wren seem 

 to use about the best material at hand for their nests. 

 What can be more unsuitable, untractable, for a nest 

 in a hole or cavity than the twigs the house wren 

 uses ? Dry grasses or bits of soft bark would bend 

 and adapt themselves easily to the exigencies of the 

 case; but stiff, unyielding twigs! What a contrast 

 to the suitableness of the material the hummingbird 

 uses — the down of some plant, which seems to have 

 a poetic fitness! 



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