In the villages of the sea-coast of Antrim it is a common practice to thatch the poorer houses with grass-wrack (Zostera marina), and I have often seen the wren's nest in the eaves of such houses, and formed of the thatch.

Mr. Jennings observes, that he does not think Montagu's remark, that the lining is invariably feathers, is correct. "I believe," he says, "when made with green moss, its lining is gene

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rally of the same material." Now, if this be the case, it is a circumstance deserving of notice, as it shows that the bird instinctively knows how to regulate the softness of the bed for her young, by the degree of that quality which the material she employs may possess; if the material used be moss, she knows that it is soft enough, and if of hay or lichen, that it is not, and therefore she gives a lining of feathers.

Let us consider our question; why is the wren's nest of large size and globular form? Simply, I presume, that it may be the warmer and drier. In an open nest the young would be too much exposed, and we may readily conceive that the little creature, which comes from an egg of only twenty grains in weight, is badly calculated to struggle against transitions of the weather. In the ingeniously built house we are considering, the little wrens enjoy a sufficiency

blinding themselves and ensnaring others. They have supposed, in the folly of their hearts, that the world itself was formed by chance; that this globe, so beautifully diversified with hill and dale, and mountains and rivers, and all the varieties of scenery which are so delightful to the eye to behold and the mind to reflect upon, was struck off the sun by the chance blow of a comet, or that it was itself an extinguished sun, or that it was originally a fluid, and became gradually solid by the remains of animals and vegetables which had lived and died in it. Such and many more have been the absurdities of men, considered in their day as luminaries of science; and the nonsense itself has been held up to the admiration of mankind as the splendid fruit of genius. Thus it will always be, that when we leave the path of observation, and in place of studying nature give way to the suggestions of imagination, we must sink deep in the pit of error and folly. sands of things which, in our being, we shall never understand. In such circumstances let us rest content in our ignorance; let us understand all that we possibly can; let us spare no trouble nor pains to acquire all the knowledge in our power, but let us be fully satisfied that all which we would dignify with

There are thou

present state of

the name of knowledge shall be strictly founded in truth. If we cannot come at the whole truth, let us be resolved to adopt nothing but the truth, however short of our wishes, and consider that a little wheat is better than a whole bushel of chaff.

And do we not shut our eyes to what is true when we totally deny the existence of reason in other animals? Can any one read the history of the dog, or look at his actions, and not perceive (if he be not predetermined otherwise) that, in many things, he is guided by reason? Does the elephant not possess reason? nor the camel, nor the horse? I have seen many horses which appeared to me to have more sense than their brutal owners. Indeed, to consider animals as totally devoid of reason, is to consider them as mere machines, a sort of playthings, as it were, in the creation. Let us, however, take up Huber on bees and ants, and read the wonderful history of these insects as recorded by that acute naturalist, and fully verified by other observers, and then, if we are not fully resolved to deny, in spite of the most evident proofs, the existence of reason in those little creatures, we must deny the evidence of our senses if we refuse to admit it.

With respect to the wren, does not the fol

lowing passage, taken from the "Journal of a Naturalist," prove that it is not altogether devoid of intelligence. "June 14. I was much pleased "this day, by detecting the stratagems of a 66 common wren to conceal its nest from observ"ation. It had formed a hollow space in the "thatch, on the inside of my cow-shed, in "which it had placed its nest by the side of a ❝rafter, and finished it with its usual neatness; "but lest the orifice of its cell should engage "attention, it had negligently hung a ragged "piece of moss on the straw-work, concealing "the entrance, and apparently proceeding from "the rafter; and so perfect was the deception, "that I should not have noticed it, though "tolerably observant of such things, had not "the bird betrayed her secret and darted out. "Now, from what operative cause did this

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stratagem proceed? Habit it was not-it "seemed like an after-thought: danger was "perceived, and the contrivance which a con"templative being would have provided was "resorted to. The limits of instinct we cannot "define: it appeared the reflection of reason. "This procedure may be judged, perhaps, a "trifling event to notice; but the ways and "motives of creatures are so little understood, "that any evidence which may assist our re

"search should not be rejected. Call their "actions as we may, they have the effect of 66 reason; and loving all the manners and opera❝tions of these heaven-directed beings, I have "noted this, simple as it may be." Surely this is an example of reasoning power, though it falls far short of what is observed in the bee and the ant. The wars, the stratagems, and other indications of intelligence in the latter, in fact so strongly resemble the transactions of human beings, that in reading its history we might almost suppose that it related to man himself.