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v THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS' NESTS 101ancient inhabitants of the hottest regions, and are particularlyaddicted to forming their first settlements at themouths of rivers or creeks, or in land-locked bays and inlets.They are a pre-eminently maritime or semi-aquatic people,to whom a canoe is a necessary of life,and who will nevertravel by land if they can do so by water. In accordancewith these tastes, they have built their houses on posts inthe water, after the manner of the lake-dwellers of ancientEurope and this mode of construction has become so confirmed,that even those tribes which have spread far into the;interior, on dry plains and rocky mountains, continue to buildin exactly the same manner, and find safety in the height towhich they elevate their dwellings above the ground.Why does each Bird build a peculiar kind of Nest ?These general characteristics of the abode of savage manwill be found to be exactly paralleled by the nests of birds.Each species uses the materials it can most readily obtain,and builds in situations most congenial to its habits. Thewren, for example, frequenting hedgerows and low thickets,builds its nest generally of moss, a material always foundwhere it and lives, among which it probably obtains much ofits insect food ;but it varies sometimes, using hay or featherswhen these are at hand. Eooks dig in pastures and ploughedfields for grubs, and in doing so must continually encounterroots and fibres. These are used to line its nest. What morenatural ! The crow feeding on carrion, dead rabbits, andlambs, and frequenting sheep-walks and warrens, chooses furand wool to line its nest. The lark frequents cultivatedfields, and makes its nest, on the ground, of dry grass-stemslined with finer grass and rootlets materials the most easyto meet with, and the best adapted to its needs. The kingfishermakes its nest of the bones of the fish which it haseaten. Swallows use clay and mud from the margins of theponds and rivers over which they find their insect food. Thematerials of birds' nests, like those used by savage man forhis house, are, then, those which come first to hand ;and itcertainly requires no more special instinct to select them inone case than in the other.But, it will be said,it is not so much the materials as the