146 A SCIENTIFIC APPRECIATION [oh. vi. 
Or take this description of the nest of the long¬ 
tailed tit:— 
“ This nest is extremely beautiful, being of a very 
regular oval form, seven inches in length, and four 
inches and a quarter in the middle. It is composed 
of hypna, kept together by means of the flaxen 
fibres of plants, some wool, and delicate filmy 
shreds, interwoven chiefly in a transverse direction, 
and has nearly the whole of its outer surface stuck 
over with small grey lichens, which are not 
agglutinated, but kept attached by filaments. The 
aperture, which is round, is an inch and a quarter 
in diameter, and an inch and a half from the 
summit or dome. The outer shell thus formed, 
although well felted and interwoven, is only a 
quarter of an inch thick. Its inner surface is stuck 
over with large feathers, and the whole internal 
cavity, is not merely lined but filled with the same 
materials. They are pretty closely compacted at 
the bottom and along the sides, and when shaken 
suffice to fill a hat of moderate phrenological 
pretensions, although not exactly mine, which 
belongs to what may be called a dunderhead. On 
being counted by a young man, the number is 
found to be 2379. They belong chiefly to the 
pheasant, wood pigeon, rook, and partridge; 
but there are also feathers of the breast of the 
missel thrush, of the yellow bunting, and of 
several other birds.” 
As REGARDS SPECIES. 
MacGillivray died seven years before the 
publication of The Origin of Species, and it is 
hardly surprising that there is little indication of 
the evolutionist outlook in his writings. In spite 
of the important work of the pioneers of evolution- 
