Strange stories of the animal world : A book of curious contributions to natural history / by John Timbs.

  • Timbs, John, 1801-1875.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Strange stories of the animal world : A book of curious contributions to natural history / by John Timbs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    coloured eggs, those of which white forms the ground belong to birds that make very close nests. Speckled eggs, with a dark or dirty ground, belong to the largest number of species. Almost all the song-birds lay such eggs ; and, building open nests, they almost invariably line the inside of them with materials of the harmonious colour of the eggs, so that no evident contrast is presented which would lead to their de- struction. Though not in every instance, yet in many, we certainly see a design in the adaptation of the colours to the purpose of concealment, according to the habits of the various classes of birds. The IMests of Birds are of such various form and materials as to exceed our limit. One of the most curious, as exempli- fying what Colonel Thompson calls “ mechanical knowledge,” is the Tailor Bird’s nest in tropical countries. The Colonel has taken a Tailor Bird’s nest out of a hedge in India, and its structure is thus described : The bird fastens together two or more leaves of suitable size with cotton, to contain its nest. But it does not sow them with a continuous thread : it puts the cotton through both, and then forms a knob at each end; so that, in fact, it rivets them. The beak performs the office of drilling in the leaves the necessary holes, and passing the fibres through them with the dexterity of a tailor. Even such parts in the rear as are not sufficiently firm are sewed. This bird inhabits India, particularly Ceylon. Among the curious nests in the British Museum are two sj)eciniens of the arbours of twigs formed by two species of Australian Bower Birds; one ornamented with bones and fresh-water shells, and the other with feathers and land-shells. Of instinct, or reason, in birds, of which Prior sang— Instinct and reason how can we divide, remarkable instances are related, as in the “ Crows’ Court,”