THE NEW EVOLUTION f^^^ 



Other kinds of brush-turkeys, as those in the Sol- 

 omon Islands, and the crocodile-bird of northern 

 Africa, simply bury their eggs in warm sand, like 

 turtles. 



In the formation of their nests birds display the 

 most extraordinary skill in the use of fibers, sticks 

 and mud, or in some cases of the secretions from theii 

 salivary glands. They also show great skill in hew- 

 ing out holes in the trunks and branches of dead trees 

 and in constructing burrows in banks and in the 

 ground. 



Extraordinary ingenuity often is exhibited in select- 

 ing situations for their nests, both when they do the 

 work of making them themselves and when they ap- 

 propriate the deserted nest or nesting site of some 

 other species. 



Many types of nests are very complicated, especially 

 such nests as are entered from the side. Among the 

 most curious are the ingeniously sewn nests of the 

 oriental tailor-birds, the long pendent nests of the 

 cassiques, related to our orioles, and the more or less 

 similar nests of some of the weaver-birds of Africa . A 

 few birds, as a certain weaver-bird and a small parrot 

 in Argentina, build community nests, like apart- 

 ment houses. 



Some birds show much flexibility in the construc- 

 tion of their nests. For instance in Bermuda where 

 there are no suitable holes in the native cedars, the 

 blue-birds build open cup-shaped nests in trees, like 

 our chipping-sparrows. But in Bermuda I once found 

 a blue-bird's nest in a hole in a capstan of a wrecked 



