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 eggs in various parts of the room
or cage, where they are confined, and seldom produce young ones, till, by
failing in their first attempt, they have learnt something from their own
observation.

4. During the time of incubation birds are said in general to turn their
eggs every day; some cover them, when they leave the nest, as ducks and
geese; in some the male is said to bring food to the female, that she may
have less occasion of absence, in others he is said to take her place, when
she goes in quest of food; and all of them are said to leave their eggs a
shorter time in cold weather than in warm. In Senegal the ostrich sits on
her eggs only during the night, leaving them in the day to the heat of the
sun; but at the Cape of Good Hope, where the heat is less, she sits on them
day and night.

If it should be asked, what induces a bird to sit weeks on its first eggs