100 
G. HOOPER-BIRDS: THEIR NESTS AND HABITS. 
as any other of its proceedings. She lays the egg on the ground, 
then taking it into her mouth, drops it into the nest. Pliny, who 
was a good observer, but given to jump at conclusions, having 
witnessed the proceeding, recorded as a fact that the bird laid her 
egg from her mouth ! 
The jackdaw, when building her nest in the hole of a tree, suffers 
great inconvenience through her blind obedience to the laws of 
instinct, untempered by a glimpse of reasoning power. Like the 
rest of her tribe, although invariably building in holes of trees or 
towers, she thinks it necessary to provide a huge substructure of 
sticks, like that of the rook’s or crow’s. In carrying a stick to the 
hole, she generally holds it by the middle, at right angles to her 
body. Of course it will not pass through the hole, and the bird 
displays unwearied patience in repeated and vain endeavours to 
force it in. At last she gives up the puzzle in despair, drops the 
stick, and flies away to find another. I have seen enough sticks 
lying at the bottom of a tree, the result of these abortive attempts, 
to fill a large basket. The jackdaw is the only member of the 
crow tribe that never builds on a tree. 
Eggs, as I have said, are generally protected from observation 
by the nature or position of the nests, hut in some cases an 
especial safeguard is afforded. The guillemot, for instance, makes 
no nest, but deposits her single egg on the bare surface of a pre¬ 
cipitous rock, from which it might be inferred that the first rough 
wind would dislodge it. But it is protected by its shape from this 
danger. One end of the egg is large and round, the other thin 
and narrowed almost to a point, the shape being something like 
that of a pegtop. The result is that, when struck by the wind, 
instead of being blown off the rock, it simply revolves on an axis, 
as you will find that anything of the same shape does if you put it 
in motion on a table. 
I could say something of the songs and varied cries of different 
birds, but I will merely note the fact that the first to open the 
annual concert in the spring is the missel-thrush, who begins his 
song in January, and that the wren and the redbreast sing, weather 
permitting, all the year round. The nightingale, the reed warbler, 
and the corn-crake—if its monotonous “crake, crake” can be 
called a song—continue their notes through the whole of the night. 
To these, according to Shakespeare, may be added, under certain 
circumstances, the cock. 
“ Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes 
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, 
The bird of dawning singeth all night long.” 
But the statement requires confirmation. 
Such are some of the differences that occur to me in reference 
to the gait, the flight, and the nesting of birds, and I will now 
briefly turn to the domestic habits and mode of life of one or two 
of the commoner birds included in the British fauna. There are 
upwards of 600 individuals who claim to be included in the list, 
all differing from each other, and all offering materials for obser- 
