CASE OF A NEST REPAIRED. 
124 
intelligence is our ignorance made manifest ! Even 
the fabrication of the nests of these little animals ex- 
ceeds our comprehension* — *we know none of the causes 
or motives of that unbodied mind that willed them 
thus. 
One notice more of the parus tribe (the parus caeru- 
leus), and these little creatures may retire to their leafy 
shades and be forgotten. I was lately exceedingly 
pleased in witnessing the maternal care and intelligence 
of this bird; for the poor thing had its young ones in 
the hole of a wall, and the nest had been nearly all 
drawn out of the crevice by the paw of a cat, and part 
of its brood devoured. In revisiting its family, the bird 
discovered a portion of it remaining, though wrapped 
up and hidden in the tangled moss and feathers of their 
bed, and it then drew the whole of the nest back into 
the place from whence it had been taken, unrolled and 
resettled the remaining little ones, fed them with the 
usual attentions, and finally succeeded in rearing them. 
The parents of even this reduced family labored with 
great perseverance to supply its wants, one or the other 
of them bringing a grub, caterpillar, or some insect, at 
intervals of less than a minute through the day, and 
probably in the earlier part of the morning more fre- 
quently ; but if we allow that they brought food to the 
hole every minute for fourteen hours, and provided for 
their own wants also, it will admit of perhaps a thousand 
grubs a day for the requirements of one, and that a di- 
minished brood; and give us some comprehension of 
the infinite number requisite for the summer nutriment 
of our soft-billed birds, and the great distances gone 
over by such as have young ones, in their numerous 
trips from hedge to tree in the hours specified, when 
they have full broods to support. A climate of mois- 
dashed upon the ground ; and there are some places to which these 
poor birds are unfortunately partial, though their nests are annually 
washed down. The projecting thatch of the old farm-house appears 
to be their safest asylum. The parent birds at times seem aware 
of the misfortune that awaits them ; as, before the calamity is com- 
pleted, we may observe them with great anxiety hovering about their 
nests. 
