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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Three Bird Homes. 



BY WARREN KIMSEY, LATHROP, MISSOURI. 



I recently discovered a pair of Ar- 

 kansas kingbirds building their nest on 

 the fan of a windmill, near Delhart, 

 Texas. This was not strange on ac- 

 count of the scarcity of trees — in the 

 Panhandle one may look for miles and 

 not see a single tree. There is no doubt 

 but that these birds would have pre- 

 ferred a tree for their nest, but trees 

 were more scarce than windmills. 

 Around this particular ranch house, 

 near which the windmill stood, there 

 were several scrubby apple trees, 

 though they were too low for kingbirds 

 to use. 



In another instance in Missouri, I 

 found a robin's nest on an old road grad- 

 er that stood by the side of the road. 

 The picture shows the nest quite clear- 

 ly — two of the four eggs being visible. 

 In one sense the location of this nest 

 was unusual as there were many de- 

 sirable trees at hand ; though it seems 

 not so unusual when one considers that 

 the robin is a freakish bird about its 



ROBIN'S NEST ON ROAD GRADER. 



NEST OF WHITE-BRE.\STED NUTHATCH IN 

 HOLLOW TREE. 



nest building, having the reputation 

 for making its home in strange places. 

 There is a white-breasted nuthatch's 

 nest in the hollow tree shown in the 

 other picture — the location of the nest 

 in this instance being characteristic of 

 the bird. As I put my hand in at the 

 l:)ottom of the opening, I found eight 

 crawly young birds in a furry nest. 

 These industrious little birds seem to 

 prefer to have their nest near the 

 ground. Imagine — eight youngsters 

 to be fed. I stationed myself near-by 

 with a field glass and watched the pro- 

 cess. The parent birds were wise. 

 Most of the food was carried from a 

 clump of willow trees, some two hun- 

 dred yards from the nest. I think they 

 were getting small worms from the ten- 

 der leaves of the willows — the ragged 

 appearance of the leaves indicated 

 this. The birds worked so rapidly that 

 they frequently met at the opening of 

 the tree, or on wing between their home 

 and the clump of willows. And no 



