ON TAMING BIROS. 
53 
case of the Song Thrush) is packed, into the middle, and moulded 
by the bird sitting down and alternately scratching with its feet 
and twisting round. To complete the lining a few horse-hairs are 
often added by many of the open-nest builders. 
The most ingenious nests to watch the construction of are those 
of the Weavers, and one of the most instructive is that formed by 
the Baya and allied Indian species. Although it is the general rule 
for cock Weavers to build the nest, the Baya’s nest can only be 
completed by the joint labours of the cock and hen ; therefore, if 
cocks alone are kept in an aviary, plenty of nests will be formed, 
but none of them with the finishing cup for the reception of the 
eggs. This fact explains why unpaired cocks, when at liberty, 
build unfinished nests, wrongly supposed by travellers to be pur- 
posely so built as night shelters. A similar fiction has been 
promulgated about incomplete Wren’s nests in Europe, the latter 
being due to the nervousness of the builder, which deserts one nest 
and commences another owing to a real or fancied interruption in 
its labours. On one occasion I was watching a Wren building, 
and, although I stood at a distance of from thirty to forty feet 
from the little architect, she no sooner caught sight of me than she 
flew away, and never completed her work ; yet, in the absence of 
the parents, I have removed eggs from a Wren’s nest with a small 
metal spoon and substituted small white rounded pebbles without 
desertion resulting. Had I used my fingers the nest would 
certainly have been deserted. 
CHAPTER X. 
ON TAMING BIRDS. 
I am often asked how to tame wild birds. Is it not a disgrace 
to civilised man that he should be so out of harmony with 
Nature that it is necessary for him to concilitate his feathered 
fellow-creatures ? In those parts of the earth where man has not 
made himself objectionable birds regard him as a friend. Let 
me quote, in proof of this statement, from an article by my friend, 
Professor W. E. D. Scott, of Princeton University, U.S.A. In 
The Outlook for July, 1902, Mr. Scott says:— “In places where 
birds have not been molested by man, as in deserts, on the islands 
of the Pacific, and in parts of Arizona where I have been, birds 
have no fear. In the latter place I remember going to a bird’s nest, 
and, wishing to see the eggs, I had to gently lift the bird off, found 
out what I wished, and put her back. She did not appear to be 
disturbed or alarmed by this. Nor do I think that there was any- 
thing peculiar and special in my attitude ; this bird had never been 
