THE ANIMAL SENSE OF BEAUTY 105 
So far, we have traced the development of this 
sense of beauty from the kites, which merely pick up 
and carry to their nests what they consider to be 
pretty and interesting, to the crow tribe, which have 
a separate hiding-place for keeping and enjoying their 
treasures. The conscious search for and application 
of ornament to the decoration of the fabric of the 
nest, even at the risk of its danger and discovery 
through the gratification of their feeling for beauty, is 
a further and most remarkable evidence of the pleasure 
which they derive from that sense ; for one of the 
strongest impulses of the nesting bird is to subor- 
dinate the colour and texture of the outside of the 
nest to the tint of its natural surroundings, and none 
but a strong and tempting bias to the indulgence of 
a contrary instinct could compete with their natural 
solicitude for the safety of their young. Yet two 
undoubted instances of the addition of ornament by 
English birds to the outside of a nest have come 
under the writer’s notice, where its use clearly entailed 
some danger from the enemy. The first was the nest 
of a chiff-chaff, found in a plantation near Rosamond’s 
Bower, on the Isis, near Godstow. It was a domed 
nest of the usual kind, made of dry, colourless grass, 
with an entrance in the side. But on the outside , and 
round the entrance to the chamber, were stuck several 
of the brilliant blue feathers of the kingfisher. The 
position of these bright patches of colour on the 
outside of the nest is strong evidence that beauty, not 
utility, was the object of their insertion. The other 
