IMITATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF BIRDS' NESTS 
Edward S. Morse 
The theory of natural selection was thought out independ¬ 
ently by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Darwin 
gives full credit to Wallace for his various contributions to 
the subject. Wallace as graciously admits that long before he 
had conceived the idea Darwin had been at work and was the 
man best fitted for the great task he had undertaken and 
accomplished. Wallace’s essays were published in various 
English magazines and reviews. These were afterwards 
brought together and embodied in book form in 1870, entitled 
“On Natural Selection.” The book has long been out of 
print but may be found in the larger public libraries. It 
should be read by every student of natural history. Among 
these interesting essays of Mr. Wallace is one entitled “The 
Philosophy of Birds’ Nests,” first published in the Intellectual 
Observer , July, 1867. He says, “Birds, we are told, build 
their nests by instinct, while man constructs his dwelling 
by the exercise of reason. Birds never change, but continue 
to build forever on the self-same plan; man alters and improves 
his houses continually.As a rule, he neither alters 
nor improves, any more than the birds do.” He goes on to 
say that the tents of the Arabs are the same as they were 
three thousand - years ago, mud villages of Egypt, unaltered 
since the days of the Pharoahs, palm-leaf huts of the Malay 
Archipelago and South America remain the same from century 
to century, the Irish turf cabin and Highland stone shelty 
persist unchanged. Man builds his shelter of material which 
comes conveniently to hand; mud, snow, palm-leaf, bamboo, 
fragments of rock, according to the habitat of the people. 
If they migrate they carry with them the style of architecture 
of their race. “When once a particular mode of building has 
been adopted, and has become confirmed by habit and by 
hereditary custom, it will be long retained, even when its 
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