174 FRANCIS H. HERRICK 



tents, let him try to find the open, grass-lined " cup " of this 

 bird, imbedded in the ground of any field or meadow, which 

 it frequents. I think that many life-long students of birds 

 would have to confess that they had never outwitted the strategy 

 of this admirable, though sometimes destructive species. 



Merely to be sheltered from the weather is at times as im- 

 portant as to be hid from enemies, for the tender nestlings of 

 many passerine birds are certain to sufter if exposed to the 

 full blaze of the sun, and it is probable that many die in conse- 

 quence, even though brooded and fed. Very often no doubt 

 the nest favors and regulates the access of heat and moisture, 

 and in the presence of non-conductive materials often tends to 

 eftect an equable distribution of both, while preventing their 

 undue loss. The importance of such secondary uses of the nest, 

 however, are likely to be exaggerated, and an exhaustive array 

 of examples might show that the " fits " and " misfits " were 

 about equal. Such birds as ravens, crossbills, or eider ducks, 

 which nest early or in high latitudes, where the snow lingers, 

 and would seem to require a warm nest in consequence, are 

 indeed credited with lining their cradles with wool, feathers, 

 or in the case of the eider with down plucked by the female 

 from her own breast. Yet this simple adjustment is not always 

 made, for the great horned owl, which also breeds early and at 

 times in the coldest and most exposed situations, is often con- 

 tent with the rudest sort of a nest. The emperor penguin, 

 indeed., which incubates its large single egg through six of the 

 coldest weeks of the Antarctic night, with the temperature 

 ranging far below the freezing point, sometimes dispenses with 

 a nest of any description ; yet nature has aided this bird in a most 

 unique way, by giving it a warm coverlid of down, a feathered 

 fold from the under side of the body which hangs like a curtain 

 over egg or young, and during incubation the egg thus screened 

 rests on the feet of the sitter; there is no pouch, and the egg is 

 not carried about as was once thought, but it is shifted from 

 one parent to the other, both taking part in the long weari- 

 some vigil. 



We have seen that the nest, though essentially a cradle for 

 the eggs or young, may become in certain cases a sort of tem- 

 porary home, and aftbrd a measure of protection, if not comfort 

 to the family. Yet it is commonly abandoned abruptly and 



