Contributions to the theory of natural selection. A series of essays ... By Alfred Russel Wallace ...

THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS' NESTS. 215
and that his constitution was not originally adapted,
and has not since become perfectly adapted, to the
climate. "
The Malay races, on the other hand, are no doubt
very ancient inhabitants of the hottest regions, and
are particularly addicted to forming their first settlements at the mouths of rivers or creeks, or in landlocked bays and inlets. They are a pre-eminently
maritime or semi-aquatic people, to whom a canoe is a
necessary of life, and who will never travel by land if
they can do so by water. In accordance with these
tastes, they have built their houses on posts in the
water, after the manner of the lake-dwellers of ancient
Europe; and this mode of construction has become so
confirmed, that even those tribes who have spread far
into the interior, on dry plains and rocky mountains,
continue to build in exactly the same manner, and
find safety in the height to which they elevate their
dwellings above the ground.
W7iy does each Bircd build a peculiar kind of Nest?
These general characteristics of the abode of savage
man will be found to be exactly paralleled by the nests
of birds. Each species uses the materials it can most
readily obtain, and builds in situations most congenial
to its habits. The wren, for example, frequenting
hedgerows and low thickets, builds its nest generally of
mnoss, a material always found where it lives, and among
which it probably obtains much of its insect food; but
it varies sometimes, using hay or feathers when these