THE NESTS OF DIFFERENT BIRDS. 
123 
blackcap, and others, which will hatch their young 
nearly at the same period, or in July, will require no- 
thing of the kind. A few loose bents and goose-grass, 
rudely entwined with perhaps the luxury of some scat- 
tered hairs, are perfectly sufficient for all the wants of 
these ,* yet they are birds that live only in genial tem- 
peratures, feel nothing of the icy gales that are natural 
to our pretty indigenous artists, but flit from sun to sun* 
and we might suppose would require much warmth in 
our climate during the season of incubation ,* but it is 
not so. The green-finch places its nest in the hedge 
with little regard to concealment ; its fabric is slovenly 
and rude, and the materials of the coarsest kinds : while 
the chaffinch, just above it in the elm, hides its nest 
with cautious care, and moulds it with the utmost atten- 
tion to order, neatness, and form. One bird must have 
a hole in the ground ; to another a crevice in a wall, or 
a chink in a tree, is indispensable. The bull-finch re- 
quires fine roots for its nest ; the gray fly -catcher will 
have cobwebs for the outworks of its shed. All the 
parus tribe, except the individual above-mentioned, 
select some hollow in a tree or cranny in a wall, and, 
sheltered as such places must be, yet will they collect 
abundance of feathers and warm materials for their in- 
fants’ beds. Endless examples might be found of the 
dissimilarity of requirements in these constructions 
among the several associates of our groves, our hedges, 
and our houses ; and yet the supposition cannot be en- 
tertained for a moment that they are superfluous, or not 
essential for some purpose with which we are unac- 
quainted.* By how many of the ordinations of supreme 
* I remember no bird that seems to suffer so frequently from the 
peculiar construction of its nest, and by reason of our common ob- 
servance of its sufferings obtains more of our pity, than the house 
marten. The rook will at times have its nest torn from its airy site, 
or have its eggs shaken from it by the gales of spring ; but the poor 
marten, which places its earthy shed beneath the eave of the barn, 
the roof of the house, or in the corner of the window, is more gene- 
rally injured. July and August are the months in which these birds 
usually bring out their young ; but one rainy day at this period, at- 
tended with wind, will often moisten the earth that composes the 
nest ; the cement then fails, and all the unfledged young ones are 
