Natural History / Or, Uncle Philip's Conversations with the Children about Tools and Trades among Inferior Animals

by Francis L. Hawks

"Why, yes, Uncle Philip, we do. The French gentleman who watched the birds so much would have seen some of them using the pockets for a place to keep watch in, if they were made for that."

"Right, boys. What I wish to teach you is to think for yourselves. Whenever any one gives you a reason for a thing, just ask yourselves, 'Is this a good reason?'"

"But, Uncle Philip, how did it happen that the other people who saw these birds should have said that these pockets were for the male bird to sit in and watch?"

"I suppose, boys, that they really thought so; but then they had not noticed the birds enough to find out the truth. It requires a great deal of time and patience to find out the truth about animals: and this is the reason why so many mistakes have been printed about them. It is a pity that such mistakes have been made; for really there is enough that is very curious about them, without men's making stories to appear strange. But I think that there will be fewer mistakes made in future."

"Why so, Uncle Philip?"

"Because, boys, men are taking more pains to see for themselves. There are more naturalists now than there were formerly; and I hope there will be more still, especially in our own large and beautiful country, where there have not yet been many. I hope that natural history will be studied in all our schools before a great while. But let us go back to our African birds.

"There is another kind which Mr. Vaillant speaks of, and I will tell you of that. He calls it the capocier, and he had a very fine opportunity to watch two of them. It is a bird easily made gentle, and he had managed by feeding two of them to make them so tame that they would come into his tent and hop about several times in a day, though he never had them in a cage. When it became time for them to build a nest, they staid away for some time, and would come to the tent once only in four or five days. At last they began to come regularly, as before, and Mr. Vaillant soon found out what they came for. They had seen upon his table cotton and moss and flax, which he used to stuff the skins of birds, and which were always lying there; and the capociers had come for these things, to build their nest of them. They would take up large bunches of them in their bills and fly away. Mr. Vaillant followed and watched them to see the nest built, and found them at work in the corner of a garden, by the side of a spring, in a large plant which grew under the shade of a tree. They were building in the fork of the branches, and had laid the foundation, which was about four inches high and six inches across. This part was made of moss and flax, mixed with grass and tufts of cotton. The next day this gentleman never left the side of the nest: the female was at work building, and the male brought the materials. In the morning the male bird made twenty-nine journeys to Mr. Vaillant's table for flax and cotton and moss; and in the afternoon he made seventeen. He would help his mate to trample down and press the cotton with his body, so as to make it into felt. Whenever he came with a load, he would put it either upon the edge of the nest or upon some branch within reach of the female.

"After he began to help the female at her work, he would often break off, and begin to play; and sometimes, as if in mischief, he would pull down a little of her work. She would get angry, and peck him with her bill: but he still continued to vex her, until at last, to save her work from being pulled down, she would stop working, and fly off from bush to bush, to tease him. They would then make up the quarrel, and she set about her work, while he would sing most delightfully for several minutes. After his song was finished, he would go to work again, until he got into a new fit of mischief and frolic, and then he would torment her as before.

"On the third day the birds began to build the walls, after having repeatedly pressed the bottom, and turned themselves round upon it in all directions, to make the nest solid. They first made a plain border all around; this they trimmed, and on it they piled up tufts of cotton, which they felted in by beating and pressing with their breasts and wings; and if any part stuck out, they worked it in with their bills, so as to make all perfectly smooth and firm. And they worked their nest round the branches near it, just as the chaffinch does.

"In seven days they finished it. It was as white as snow, and on the outside it was nine inches high, and not smooth or regular in its shape; but in the inside it was shaped exactly like a hen's egg, with the small end up: the hollow was five inches high, and between four and five inches across; and it was so neatly felted together that it might have been taken for a piece of fine cloth a little worn; and so close that you could not take away any part without tearing the nest in pieces. Here is a picture of the nest, boys, and it is wonderful work for a small bird."