22 
A CREATION OF LOVE. 
necessarily defective. The bird has neither the squirrel's hand nor the 
beaver's tooth. She is limited to her bill, her claw, and her body; and 
it is wonderful what she attempts, and what she accomplishes. Not 
less wonderful is the way in which each bird adapts her nest to the 
requirements of her mode of life. There is as much individuality in 
the nest as in the bird; and the naturalist is never at a loss to 
determine to what species any particular nest belongs. That of the 
Linnet, for instance, cannot be mistaken for the blackbird's; that of the 
martin is whoU}^ unlike that of the nightingale. 
It has been well said that the bird builds for her family — for her 
young; that the nest is a creation of love, and impressed with the force 
of an extraordinary resolution and indomitable perseverance. The 
"the nest is a creation of love " 
architect usually is the female, who employ's the male bird as her 
purveyor. He is despatched in search of the materials; the grass, roots, 
moss, hair, feathers, down, which she weaves, plaits, or kneads together 
so dexterouslj^ This part of the work must be sufficiently difficult; 
but the difficulty increases when the interior has to be completed. 
"Care must be taken that it is fitted to receive an egg peculiarly 
sensitive to cold, every chilled point of which means for the little one a 
dead limb. That little one will be born naked. Its stomach, pressed 
close to the mother's bod}-, will not fear the cold; but the unfeathered 
