WAYS OF NATURE 



which it is not entitled. He says that in order that 

 the mud nest may not advance too rapidly and so 

 fall of its own weight, the bird works at it only in the 

 morning, and plays and feeds the rest of the day, 

 thus giving the mud a chance to harden. Had not 

 the genial parson observed that this is the practice 

 of all birds during nest-building — that they work 

 in the early morning hours and feed and amuse 

 themselves the rest of the day ? In the case of the 

 mud-builders, this interim of course gives the mud 

 a chance to harden, but are we justified in crediting 

 them with this forethought ? 



Such skill and intelligence as a bird seems to dis- 

 play in the building of its nest, and yet at times 

 such stupidity ! I have known a phcebe-bird to start 

 four nests at once, and work more or less upon all 

 of them. She had deserted the ancestral sites under 

 the shelving rocks and come to a new porch, upon 

 the plate of which she started her four nests. She 

 blundered because her race had had little or no 

 experience with porches. There were four or more 

 places upon the plate just alike, and whichever 

 one of these she chanced to strike with her loaded 

 beak she regarded as the right one. Her instinct 

 served her up to a certain point, but it did not 

 enable her to discriminate between those rafters. 

 Where a little original intelligence should have 

 come into play she was deficient. Her progenitors 

 had built under rocks where there was little chance 

 168 



