to the heat ... Their skin is
hot to the touch, and they perspire little ... They are restless and
discontented in hot, dry weather, but cheerful on cool days, when the
rain is pouring down their naked backs." And, after giving many other
details, he concludes, "How different all this is with the Negro, the
true child of tropical climes! The impression gradually forced itself on
my mind that the Red Indian lives as an immigrant or stranger in these
hot regions, 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
land-locked 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.

_Why does each Bird 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 _moss_, 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
are at hand. Rooks dig in pastures and ploughed fields for grubs, and
in doing so must continually encounter _roots_ and _fibres_. These are
used to line its nest. What more natural! The crow feeding on carrion,
dead rabbits, and lambs, and frequenting sheep-walks and warrens,
chooses _fur_ and _wool_ to line its nest. The lark frequents cultivated
fields, and makes its nest, on the ground, of grass lined with
_horsehair_--materials the most easy to meet with, and the best adapted
to its needs. The kingfi