INTRODUCTION. 
xliii 
and egress, lay many eggs, and consequently require a warmer apartment. 
The Wood Pigeon composes its nest of a few sticks, most awkwardly put 
together ; it is, in fact, a mere restingplace for its young, which never exceed 
two. The Jay, that raises an artless fabric without a canopy, seldom lays 
more than three or four eggs ; but the long-tailed Titmouse, and the Wren, 
the nests of which are canopied, have often from eight to twenty young ones. 
The Willow Wren, which also raises a canopied nest, but with a wader 
entrance, incubates on eight or ten eggs. The Goldfinch, the Linnet, the 
Chaffinch, the Whitethroat, the Bulfinch, the Thrush, the Hedge Sparrow, 
the Blackbird, the Green Grossbeak, the Sedgebird, the Reed Sparrow, the 
Yellow Bunting, the Red-backed Butcherbird, and the Titlark, and many 
others, the nests of which are cup-shaped, and without a canopy, rarely lay 
more than five. The Golden-crested Wren, which often deposits eight or nine 
eggs, to obviate the necessity of a canopy, forms its nest in a deep, oblong 
or purse-like shape. But birds that deposit their eggs on the ground, or in 
holes of trees, or walls, often rear many young ones. In the former 
instance, the earth retains and imbibes the heat of the sun-beams, and in 
the latter, the warm places, in which the nests are secreted, in a great 
degree compensate for the want of a canopy. With consummate art 
and elegance numerous species of birds select and unite the materials of 
which their nests are made, especially among the Sparrow kinds. In most of 
these, the male and female are alike actively employed. As the volume of 
their bodies is small, they in general use the warmest substances which they 
can procure. The down of the thistle, and other vegetables, the silky 
substance of the rush, the wool and hair of animals, and even their own 
feathers, constitute the interior linings of their commodious dwellings. In 
our climate, the Chaffinch, the Golden-crested Wren, and the long-tailed 
Titmouse, far exceed all their fellows in the neatness and beauty of these 
structures. The interior of all is in some degree depressed, and of the Spar- 
row kinds shaped nearly in the figure of a semicircle. No other form Would 
answer so well. The eggs, which by their own weight, and the inclination 
of the nest, are pressed toward the centre, there meet the body of the bird, 
G 2 
