JOURNAL OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 



Vol. 1. MAY-JUNE, 1911. No. 3. 



NESTS AND NEST-BUILDING IN BIRDS: PART I 



FRANCIS H. HERRICK 



Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 



TEN FIGURES 



CONTENTS 



1. Introduction: the Literature of Birds' Nests. 



2. The Function of the Nest, and the Problem of Protection. " Perfection " 



in nest-building. 



3. The Classification of Birds' Nests on the basis of Behavior. General and 



specific types of nest. Increment nests of the " standing," and " hang- 

 ing " types. 



1. INTRODUCTION 



The nest and the bird are so closely associated that one 

 promptly suggests the other. They fit like lock and key. Yet 

 there are other nest-builders, both vertebrate and invertebrate, 

 which fashion even more uniform, complex, and more remark- 

 able structures than many birds; for among the social insects, 

 the paper-making and mud-dauber wasps, the wax-secreting 

 bees and wood-gnawing termites, not to speak of many true 

 ants, build not alone to protect their young in infancy, but to 

 house the entire colony, to store its food, and minister to the 

 varied needs of all its members, young and old. 



A few marine and many fluviatile fishes, certain tree toads 

 which make tree nests, and_ among the nearer kin of birds, many 

 .lizards and alligators, not to speak of a great host of mammals, 

 either build true nests, or rear houses, lodges, forms, or structures 

 of some sort, in which to lay their eggs or young, or to conceal 

 and guard both. It was left, however, for the modern birds to 

 develop an ancient custom on a wider and somewhat dift'erent 

 scale, for no other animals have ever possessed their tools in 

 their present form, — breast, bill, feet, and wings — , and no 



