6o Our Bird Friends. 



pictures of a Tree Pipit's nest as it was found and 

 after the eggs had been opened to view by the 

 parting of the grass in front. The eggs of each of 

 them are coloured in browns and grevs of various 

 shades, so tliat if seen they will not afford a strik- 

 ing contrast Avitli the dead grass or horse-hair 

 forming the lining of the nests in which they lie. 



Other open-topped nests belong, as a rule, to 

 biids capabL' of defending their contents either in 

 colonics or in pairs, to say nothing of tlie inacr-cs- 

 sible situations of some of them in the faces of 

 clitls and near tlie tops of tall trees. Seagulls <.f 

 various species. Rooks, Ravens, Crows, Eagles, and 

 Peregrine Falcons belong to this division. 



Of course, there are soiiic builders of these 

 open-topped nests that have to proxide against 

 other dangers than discovery and destruction by 

 their natural enemies. The Carrie. n Crow often 

 places its nest amongst the slender branches of a 

 tree where it would be dangerous Ibr even a boy to 

 climb to it. P)Ut the surniountin'-;' <'t" that danger 

 creates another. The nest is violently swavcd to 

 and fro by every strong wind that bl<»ws, and were 

 it at all shallow the ec^ors would roll out and be 

 hurled in fragments to the ground below. The wise 

 builder therefore constructs a deep cu])-^liaped home 

 which aftbrds safety to anything in it. I must con- 

 fess that I adnu'i-e this cunin'ng bird I'or its Avonder- 

 lul sagacity. If approached by a gamekeeper with 

 a gun wdiilst sitting on its nest, it does not fly oif' 



