BIRDS. 
355 
the same rule, she is never mistaken in her time, 
so as to lay her eggs before she has completed her 
nest. All this is wonderful, and serves as one 
among many instances to prove the agency of a 
wise and powerful Being ; u the author in nature,” 
says Paley, “ of infinitely various expedients for in- 
finitely various ends, upon whom we must rely for 
the choice and appointment of means adequate to 
the execution of any plan which his goodness or 
justice may have formed, for the moral and ac- 
countable part of his terrestrial creation.” 
The different propensities of animals, says Mr. 
Barrow, proceeding from the different organs with 
which nature has furnished them, are no doubt mo- 
dified and altered according to situation and circum- 
stances. Most of the small birds of Southern Africa, 
continues this gentleman, construct their nests in 
such a manner that they can be entered only by one 
small orifice, and many suspend them from the slen- 
der extremities of high branches. A species ofloxia, 
or grossbeak, always hangs its nest on a branch ex- 
tending over a river or pool of water. It is shaped 
exactly like a chemist’s retort, and is suspended 
from the head ; so that the shank of eight or nine 
inches long, at the bottom of which is the aperture, 
almost touches the water. This curious little habi- 
tation is made of green grass, firmly put together, 
and very artfully woven. Another small bird, the 
Cape titmouse, constructs its luxurious nest of the 
down of a species of asclepias. This nest is made 
of the texture of fiannel, and the fleecy hosiery is 
2 a 2 
