CHAPTER III. 
NEST BUILDING. 
“ It wins my admiration 
To view the structure of that little work, 
A bird nest. Mark it well, within, without ; 
No tool had he that wrought, no knife to cut, 
No nail to fix, no bodkin to insert, 
No glue to join ; his little beak was all, 
And yet how neatly finished ! What nice hand, 
With every implement and means of art, 
And twenty years’ apprenticeship to hoot, 
Could make me such another ? Fondly then 
We boast of excellence, whose noblest skill 
Instinctive genius foils.”'— Hurdis. 
With birds the almighty power of love makes artists of 
both sexes: the male is an adept in music, and the 
female not less so in the science of architecture. It 
must be admitted that these accomplishments are 
inborn, and, in ordinary parlance, called “ Instincts,” 
though they none the less deserve the first appellation; 
for both aris are brought to perfection, and that only at 
mature age. 
The architectural talent of the bird has nothing in 
common with that of man. It is almost entirely confined 
to the construction of a cradle for the coming brood, and 
but rarely employed in the building of a house, in our 
sense of the word. 
I look upon the act of observing and watching birds 
