io 6 
AS THE TICS AT THE ZOO 
case was the nest of a goldfinch, which was built on 
a high branch of a sycamore, near the window of a 
house at Sidmouth in Devonshire. When the fabric 
of the nest was completed, the birds, or rather one 
bird, for the other was constantly employed in build- 
ing, brought long pieces of the blue forget-me-not 
from the next garden, and so adjusted the sprays that 
the dowers hung all round the top of the nest. The 
sacrifice of safety to beauty did not cause any risk 
from below, as the nest was at a considerable height 
from the ground. Unfortunately it attracted the 
notice of a jackdaw passing overhead, and the black 
robber plundered the nest of the eggs on which the 
bird had been sitting for some days. It may be 
noticed that in both these cases, in each of which 
there was a large choice of flowers or feathers — for 
the feathers which lined the chiff-chaff’s nest were 
brought from a farmyard near — the irresistible colour 
was light-blue. This decorative instinct finds its final 
and complete expression in the bower-birds, and the 
still more interesting gardener-bird of New Guinea, 
both of which construct an “ art gallery” for the 
reception of their treasures, and the better enjoyment 
of their sense of the beautiful. These bowers are in 
no sense nests, but “ palaces of art” for the days of 
their honeymoon, and are quite apart from the later 
cares of the nest or nursery. The best of all are the 
galleries of the gardener-birds, wdiich Count Rosenberg 
recently found in New Guinea. 
“ It was a piece of workmanship more lovely than 
