times we have found the nest-webs of spiders bundled up into little tufts, and stuck in similarly to lichens; and in the vicinity of the cotton factories, at Catrine, in Ayrshire, we have seen many chaffinches' nests stuck over in the same manner with small tufts of cotton wool.

But the indispensable substance in all these nests, how different soever they may be in the outward materials, is fine wool, with which the moss, lichen, spiders' nests, tufts of cotton, or bark-scales, are carefully and neatly felted into a texture of wonderful uniformity. The nature of the workmanship of these little birds will be seen to extraordinary advantage when compared with the moss-baskets for holding eggs or fruit, which we meet with in some of the shops in the metropolis. The moss (usually Hypna) upon the fruit and egg-baskets is stuck on in a very rough way, bits of the branches projecting all over, as if the maker possessed not the skill to render it smooth; but the bird's nest, when newly finished, and before it has been battered by storms or exposed to the wear and tear incident to the rearing of a brood of nestlings, is almost as smooth on the outside (more so interiorly) as if it had been felted together by a hat-maker. The wool, of course, is the material by which this is effected, no other substance which the bird could select being capable of matting so nicely together both its own fibres and the coarser materials which are intermixed with it and stuck over the whole. In many of these nests, though not in all (following the principle of the hat-maker in binding the rim of a hat), greater strength is given to the fabric by binding the whole round with dry grass-stems, or more rarely with slender roots, which are partly covered by the staple felt-work of moss and wool. A circumstance also never neglected, is to bind the nest

reply in more feeble strains." He adds, what is by no means the fact, that "the nightingale, when he first arrives in spring, is silent, begins with faltering, infrequent airs, and it is not till the dam sits on her eggs that he pours out the warm melody of his heart: then he relieves and soothes her tedious incubation; then he redoubles his caresses, and warbles with deeper pathos*." On the contrary, we uniformly observe, among the innumerable nightingales which annually arrive in our neighbourhood in spring, that the males sing out in as full clear notes on their first appearance (usually many days before the arrival of the females) as they ever do afterwards t. concludes that his opinion derives additional support from the circumstance of song-birds becoming silent, or their notes being less sweet, after the breeding season is over t.

many

Buffon

Another naturalist of eminence, Colonel Montagu, is more circumstantial in his arguments for the same opinion, and though we do not agree altogether with his explanations, the greater number of his facts "The males of song-birds," he are unquestionable. "and says, others, do not in general search for the female; but, on the contrary, their business in the spring is to perch on some conspicuous spot, breathing out their full notes, which, by instinct, the female knows, and repairs to the spot to choose her mate. This is particularly verified with respect to the summer-birds of passage. The nightingale, and most of its genus, although timid and shy to a great degree, mount aloft, and incessantly pour forth their strains, before song each seemingly vying in its love-laboured the females arrive. No sooner do they make their appearance than dreadful battles ensue, and their

The process of felting, in the case of nest-building, as well as in the fabrication of hats, depends on the structure of the wool or fur, which requires for that purpose to be very flexible, All fur, wool, and hair, besides, though it may appear smooth both to the eye and the touch, is full of inequalities, which dispose the fibres to hook and adhere among each other, working more closely together as they are pressed or moved, and retaining the hold they thus gain, unless dissevered by considerable force. We shall make this more obvious by briefly considering the structure of hair. Each hair, then, appears to be composed of ten or twelve smaller hairs, which unite

of the young in his beak, which is dropped at a distance from the nest *."

Plausible as this reasoning seems to be, it will not be difficult to adduce numerous facts with which it will not accord. It is not indeed a correct statement of the fact, to say that birds sing only during the seasons of pairing and breeding, as Buffon and Montagu assume. This is the case with the greater number of the seed-eating song-birds, both wild and tame; but not with the soft-billed birds. We have not many of these resident with us during winter, the greater number migrating to more southern latitudes, where they can find an abundant supply of insects and fruits; but all of those which do winter with us continue more or less in song after having moulted. The most conspicuous and best known of these autumnal and winter song-birds is the red-breast. Both Montagu and White are in error when they say this bird "sings throughout the winter except in severe weather" or "during frost"; for though continued frost or snow, by depriving it of a due supply of food, may render it silent, we can answer for the fact of having, not once, but frequently, heard the red-breast singing as merrily during sharp frost, as in the heyday of summer or in the mild sunshine of autumn. A much smaller and more delicate bird, the wren (Anorthura communis), also sings in all weathers during the autumn and winter, as well as the little dunnock (Accentor modularis); and they are frequently accompanied by the thrush and the blackbird. Though the latter do not sing so long and so frequently as in summer, this appears to be more on account of the physical languor arising from a precarious supply of food than from its not being the pairing season. That what has been stated is not peculiar to the milder weather of the southern coun* Ornithological Dict., Intr. 1st ed.; p. 476, 2d ed.

OL

Hairs of (a) the Bat, (b) the Mole, and (c) the Hamster Mouse, It is in consequence of this imbricated structure that the individual fibres of a quantity of fur or wool, when spread upon a table, covered with a linen cloth, and pressed down in different directions, will each begin to move in the direction of its root, in the same manner as the hair rubbed between the fingers in the experiment just mentioned. The sevę, ral fibres being thus moved in every direction, become interwoven with each other, and unite into a continuous mass. Curled hairs, again, such as the fibres of wool, entwine themselves less closely than those which are straight, though flexible, as they do not, like these, recede from the point of pressure in a straight line; but the expansion of the imbricated structure by heat and moisture greatly facilitates the felting process, and hence hatters use hot water to expand the short fur of rabbits and hares, which they employ. The tendency of straight hairs to proceed in a straight line in the direction of the root, is a property of great advantage to the hatter; for he spreads over his coarser hat body a quantity of fine straight fur, and, by pressure, these fine hairs move inwards in the direction of their roots, and thus form a coating or nap, the base of the hairs being inserted