appear upon the young parasite being hatched. Dr. Potter is of opinion that it is the foster-mother which does this in the case of the cow-bird, and not the young of the latter, as Dr. Jenner and Colonel Montagu ascertained with respect to the cuckoo. Some of the circumstances, indeed, mentioned by Dr. Potter, seem inexplicable on any other supposition; in the case, for example, of the nest of a blue-bird (Sialia Wilsonii), built in a hollow stump, containing five eggs of the owner and one of the cow-bird. Three or four days after the discovery, he found a young cow-bird hatched, and only three eggs remaining, and one of the two which had disappeared lying at the bottom of the stump and rotten. The cavity in the stump was a foot deep, the nest at the bottom, and the entrance perpendicular; and hence it would seem to follow that the eggs could not have been ejected by the young cow-bird, but must have been carried out by its foster-mother. This is a wise provision of nature under such circumstances; for if all the eggs were hatched, the nest could not contain the young, and unless the foster-parents attended exclusively to the parasite, the species might soon become extinct. ALTHOUGH, in the preceding pages, we have considered birds as miners, as ground-builders, as masons, as carpenters, as platform builders, as basket-makers, as weavers, as tailors, as felt-makers, as cementers, and as dome-builders, we have not dwelt at much length upon any fancied analogies between their arts and those of the human race. The great distinction between man and the inferior animals is, that the one learns almost every art progressively, by his own experience operating with the accumulated knowledge of past generations, whilst the others work by a fixed rule, improving very little if any during the course of their own lives, and rarely deviating today from the plans pursued by the same species a thousand years ago. It is true that the swallow, which doubtless once built its nest in hollow trees, has now accommodated itself to the progress of human society by choosing chimneys for nestling; and it is also to be noticed, that in the selection of materials a great many birds, as we have already shewn, accommodate themselves to their individual opportunities of procuring substances differing in some degree from those used in other situations by the same species. These adaptations only shew that the instinct which guides them to the construction of the nests best fitted to their habits is not a blind one; that it is very nearly allied to the reasoning faculty, if it is not identified with it. But that the rule by which birds conduct their architectural labours is exceedingly limited, must be evident from the consideration that no species whatever is in a state of progression from a rude to a polished style of construction. There is nearly as much difference between the comparative beauty of the nests of a wood-pigeon and of a bottle-tit, as between the hut of a North American savage and a Grecian temple. But although the savage, in the course of ages, may attain as much civilization as would lead him to the construction of a new Parthenon, the wood-pigeon will continue only to make a platform of sticks to the end of time. It is evident, from a contemplation of all nature, that the faculties of quadrupeds, birds, insects, and all the inferior animals, are stationary:—those of man only are progressive. It is this distinction which enables him, agreeably to the will of his Creator, to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." But within their limited range the inferior animals perform their proper labours with an unwearied industry, and an unerring precision, which call forth our wonder and admiration. Of these remarkable qualities we have given abundant examples in the preceding pages; and they are not without moral instruction. Elevated as our minds are in the comparative scale of nature, we may still take example from the diligence, the perseverance, and the cheerfulness, which preside over the Architec ture of Birds. 66 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, WITH AUTHORITIES. 2. Head of the bank-swallow (Specimen) Page 1. Nest of the butcher-bird (Specimen) 3. The stormy petrel (Altered from Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 4. The puffin (Altered from Pennant's Brit. Zool.) 28 35 43 47 49 52 53 5. The burrowing-owl (Bonaparte's Continuation of Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 6. The kingfisher (Altered from Bewick's Brit. Birds) 7. The belted kingfisher (Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 8. Echinus esculentus (Specimen) 9. The sea-egg (Parkinson's Oryctology) 10. The willet (Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 11. The Virginian rail (Wilson's Am. Ornith. 12. The American stilt (Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 13. The long-tailed duck (Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 18. The Kentucky warbler (Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 20. The nuthatch (Altered from Wilson's Am. Ornith.). 19. The heron (Specimen) 21. Nests of the cliff-swallow (Bonaparte's Cont. of Wilson's Am. 27. Head and bill of the toucan (Willughby's Ornith.) 28. The downy woodpecker (Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 29. The hairy woodpecker (Wilson's Am. Ornith.). 30. The yellow-bellied woodpecker (Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 31. The red-headed woodpecker (Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 32. Nest of the turtle-dove (Specimen) 33. The golden eagle (Bewick's Brit. Birds) 34. Stork's nest on a pillar at Persepolis (Bewick's Nest-Specimen Bird-Pillar and Background from Cardin's Travels) 36. The American blue jay (Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 39. The solitary thrushes of England and America (Montagu's Ornith. Dict. and Wilson's Am. Ornith) 40. Nest of the missel thrush (Specimen) 42. Nest of a rook on the weathercock of Newcastle Exchange (Brande's Antiquities of Newcastle) 43. Nests of the pensile grosbeak (Wood's Zɔography) 45. Nests of the sociable grosbeak (Wood's Zoography) 225 227 229 234 235 48. Supposed Nest of the reed-bunting (Specimen) 49. Nest of the greenfinch (Specimen). 237 244 50. Baltimore oriole and nest (Audubon). 248 51. Nest of the tchitrec (Vaillant's Oiseaux d'Afrique) 253 52. Nest of the yellow-hammer (Specimen) 255 53. Nest of the tailor-bird (Pennant's Indian Zoology) 54. Female tailor-bird and nest (Forbes's Oriental Memoirs) 55. Chaffinch's nest on an elder-tree (Specimen). 261 265 56. Hairs of the bat, mole, &c. magnified (Journal of a Naturalist, and Lewenhoeck's Essays) 267 72. Nest of the bottle-tit (Specimen) 57. Nest of the goldfinch (Specimen). 58. Nest of the canary (Bolton's Harmonia Ruralis, and Specimen) 68. Nest of the willow-wren (Specimen). 69. Nest of the golden-crested wren (Bolton's Harmonia Ruralis) 70. Nest of the hou-e-sparrow (Specimen) 71. Nest of the magpie (Specimen). 73. Purple martins building in a gourd (Audubon) 74. Young cuckoo (Vaillant's Giseaux d'Afrique) 75. The night-jar (Bewick's Brit. Birds). 76. Female whip-poor-will and young one (Wilson's Am. Ornith.) 78. Female Maryland yellow-throat and young cow-bunting (Wil- 362 373 383 |