ists in nature: and
the down of thistles in those nests, that were by some accident constructed
later in the summer, which material could not be procured for the earlier
nests: in many different climates they cannot procure the same materials,
that they use in ours. And it is well known, that the canary birds, that
are propagated in this country, and the finches, that are kept tame, will
build their nests of any flexile materials, that are given them. Plutarch,
in his Book on Rivers, speaking of the Nile, says, "that the swallows
collect a material, when the waters recede, with which they form nests,
that are impervious to water." And in India there is a swallow that
collects a glutinous substance for this purpose, whose nest is esculent,
and esteemed a principal rarity amongst epicures, (Lin. Syst. Nat.) Both
these must be constructed of very different materials from those used by
the swallows of our country.

In India the birds exert more artifice in building their nests on account
of the monkeys and snakes: some form their pensile nests in the shape of a
purse, deep and open at top; others with a hole in the side; and others,
still more cautious, with an entrance at the very bottom, forming their
lodge near the summit. But the taylor-bird will not ever trust its nest to
the extremity of a tender twig, but makes one more advance to safety by
fixing it to the leaf itself. It picks up a dead leaf, and sews it to the
side of a living one, its slender bill being its needle, and its thread
some fine fibres; the lining consists of feathers, gossamer, and down; its
eggs are white, the colour of the bird light yellow, its length three
inches, its weight three sixteenths of an ounce; so that the materials of
the nest, and the weight of the bird, are not likely to draw down an
habitation so slightly suspended. A nest of this bird is preserved in the
British Museum, (Pennant's Indian Zoology). This calls to one's mind the
Mosaic account of the origin of mankind, the first dawning of art there
ascribed to them, is that of sewing leaves together. For many other curious
kinds of nests see Natural History for Children, by Mr. Galton. Johnson.
London. Part I. p. 47. Gen. Oriolus.

3. Those birds that are brought up by our care, and have had little
communication with others of their own species, are very defective in this
acquired knowledge; they are not only very awkward in the construction of
their nests, but generally scatter their