BIRDS' NESTS 



CHAPTER II 



Original Nest Builders. Swallow's Change of Habit. 

 Decorative Sense in Birds. 



Few things in bird-life are more interesting than 

 the manner of nest-building. The views of the 

 feathered architects of what constitutes a suitable 

 residence, the choice of a site, and the nature of the 

 material used, are curiously diverse. In Great 

 Britain we have nothing sensational in the way of 

 nests. We have nothing quite to compare with 

 the AustraHan mound-builders, for example, whose 

 habitation is built up of earth and stones, 14 feet 

 high and 150 feet in circumference ; nor of the 

 Afiican sociable grosbeak, whose nest — or rather 

 aggregation of nests — is a huge circular erection 

 surrounding the entire stem of a great tree, and 

 containing as many as 300 nest-cells, each occupied 

 by a pair of birds ; nor have we an esculent swallow 

 as the Chinese have, whose glutinous secretions are 

 worked into an edible nest with a market value of 

 45 dollars a pound. 



But apart from these abnormal examples of 

 avian craftsmanship, our nest-builders, none the 

 less, show a variety of design and skill in dealing 

 with local difficulties which are truly marvellous 

 when the weakness of the workers and the inade- 

 quacy of their tools come to be considered. 



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