SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
281 
of wliicl) man is clearly the head. If it be instinct that in 
Europe causes the shyness of birds at the approach of man, 
the same instinct instructs them to be so bold in India and 
China, where they are not molested, as almost to be taken by 
the hand. The different propensities of animals, proceeding 
from the different organs with which nature has furnished 
them, are no doubt modified and altered according to situa- 
tion and ch'cumstances. Most of the small birds of South- 
ern Africa construct their nests in such a manner, that they 
can be entered only by one small orifice, and many suspend 
them from the slender extremities of high branches. A species 
of loxia, or grossbeak, always hangs its nest on a branch ex- 
tending over a river or pool of water. It is shaped exactly 
like a chemist's retort ; is suspended from the head, and the 
shank of eight or nine inches long, at the bottom of which is 
the aperture, almost touches the water. It is made of green 
grass, firmly put together, and curiously woven. Another 
small bird, the Parus Capensis, or Cape Titmouse, constructs 
its luxurious nest of the pappus or down of a species of ascle- 
pias. This nest is made of the texture of flannel, and the 
fleecy hosiery is not more soft. Near the upper end projects 
a small tube about an inch in length, with an orifice about 
three-fourths of an inch in diameter. Immediately under 
the tube, is a small hole in the side, that has no communica- 
tion with the interior part of the nest ; in this hole the male 
sits at nights, and thus they are both screened from the wea- 
ther. The sparrow in Africa hedges round its nest with 
thorns ; and even the swallow, under the eaves of houses, or 
in the rifts of rocks, makes a tube to its nest of six or seven 
VOL. I, 00 
