St Nicholas [serial] . the oriole andthe swallow owe their improvement to their inter-course with man, and that the fact that they havemade great advances in their method of building isowing to his influence, so that these examples donot prove that birds have any power to improvethemselves without his help. At first sight thisobjection seems to have great weight, but as soonas we examine it more carefully, we find that it 688 HOW BIRDS IMPROVE IN NEST-BUILDING. does not amount to much. It is true that mansupplies the opportunities of which the barn-swal-lows and the oriole avail themselves, bu
St Nicholas [serial] . the oriole andthe swallow owe their improvement to their inter-course with man, and that the fact that they havemade great advances in their method of building isowing to his influence, so that these examples donot prove that birds have any power to improvethemselves without his help. At first sight thisobjection seems to have great weight, but as soonas we examine it more carefully, we find that it 688 HOW BIRDS IMPROVE IN NEST-BUILDING. does not amount to much. It is true that mansupplies the opportunities of which the barn-swal-lows and the oriole avail themselves, but this is allthat he does; and the fact that the birds do takeadvantage of the opportunities, shows that theyhave the power of improvement within themselves, them, and their improvement is the result of theiown efforts; and there can be no doubt that, if tinsame advantages had presented themselves independently of men, the birds would have been wisenough to seize upon them. We have now seen that birds do sometimes mak. ORIOLES AND TKEIR NEST. and ready to show itself as soon as occasion and swallows are not domestic, like thevarious sorts of poultry; although they find it totheir interest to associate with man, they are theirown masters, and in this respect are as truly wildas those birds which live in the woods and swamps;in fact, the oriole is as shy and difficult to approachas a forest bird. Man has not tamed or instructed improvements in the places selected for their nesand in the materials which they make use of; a:I will next try to show you that they great changes for the better in the shapetheir nests. A few years ago Pouchet, a French naturaliwho was then engaged in writing a book upinatural history, wished to have an engraving ma iS77.) A SUMMER RIDE IN LABRADOR. 689 jf the nest of the common European nests in his collection were nearly fifty yearsold, and, thinking that the artist would be able touake a much better pict
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Keywords: ., bookauthordodgemar, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1873
