THE OOLOGIST 



97 



without a scratch or crack. Reference to 

 this subject recalls the frequency with which 

 collectors meet with nests out of season — 

 some new, others in the last stages of de- 

 letion. Nests in unaccountable positions 

 and of unfamiliar materials and construc- 

 tion appear in localities, the oology of which 

 one thinks himself familiar. It seems the 

 more aggravating because there are no 

 means of ascertaining to what species these 

 nests belong, and they are useless except 

 as ornament. 



— Nests vary considerably according to 

 location, even when the difference geograph- 

 ically or botauically seems so slight as to 

 make noticeable variation in materials or 

 positions appear unlikely. These varia- 

 tions, moreover, occur constantly, and teach 

 us not to expect too great an uniformity in 

 nature. One point is noticeable : that is 

 the fact that nests constructed in populated 

 districts, where such materials as twine, 

 rope, yarn, wool, cotton and other like sub- 

 stances are easily procured and quickly ap- 

 propriated, possess an appearance not read- 

 ily reconciled with that of nests of the same 

 species, built where none but the raw ma- 

 terials of nature can be obtained. Dried 

 leaves and grasses predominate in these lat- 

 ter, where we should expect to find a vari- 

 ety of materials if built near the dwellings 

 of man, and a somber sameness seems to be 

 present in all nests of the wildernesses. 

 Hair and rootlets and occasionally a iew 

 feathers are used in nests built in unculti- 

 vated places and deep woods, in many 

 cases where we find soft plant down and 

 cottony materials at home. 



— A favorite nesting place of wood birds 

 is near water, and here the collector may 

 always be sure of a diversified and general- 

 ly desirable field of search. As a rule, the 

 edge of a stream, lake or other body of wa- 

 ter, in the woods, furnishes specimens which 

 both in value and number, far exceed those 

 to be tound elsewhere. With equal truth 

 it may be said that the borders or vicinity 

 of the borders of forests are more produc- 

 tive to the collector than their wildest and 

 darkest recesses. There are, to be sure, 



species whose nests and eggs are very de- 

 sirable, to be found breeding in the midst of 

 heavy timber ; but the variety is limited, 

 and the surroundings such as to render gen- 

 eral search much less profitable to the oblo- 

 gist than the more open localities referred 

 to ; for, with very few exceptions, deep 

 wood birds build their nests in places offer- 

 ing concealment from the most laborious 

 search. Swampy shores are even more pro- 

 lific of birds' nests than dry ones, for then 

 may be found birds of no less than four or 

 five diff"erent classes or groups, according to 

 the number of different characteristics pos- 

 sessed by the locality. 



— Isolation does not always have the ef- 

 fect of inducing birds to build lower in trees 

 or in more accessible positions. Indeed, to 

 state the proposition in another form, the 

 instances are comparatively few, in which 

 birds in inhabited places have gone to ex- 

 tremes in placing their nests out of danger. 

 There are in fact, as many, if not more en- 

 emies in places not frequented by man as iu 

 populated districts. Animals and birds of 

 prey and plunder are most to be feared by 

 wood birds, and instead of gaining confi- 

 dence in the wilduess and supposed security 

 of the locality, as some writers have endeav- 

 ored to show beyond a reasonable limit, the 

 birds have used all their old and much of 

 recently acquired ingenuity in protecting 

 their treasures, A comparison of a given 

 number of nests found in an uninhabited re- 

 gion with a like number about home, in po- 

 sition, will show very little difference — per- 

 haps none as regards the safety of the loca- 

 tion. Exception must be made, of course, 

 in consideration of the abundance of a spe- 

 cies in one locality and its scarcity in anoth- 

 er, since a colony of birds will frequently 

 nest differently from a single pair — the 

 Herons furnish a good example. Ground 

 building birds conform their nests to an es- 

 tablished position more noticeably than 

 most other groups ; admitting some promi- 

 nent exceptions, their habit is the same in 

 all places. Another group of birds — the 

 Woodpeckers and their allies and the Belt- 

 ed Kingfisher furnish examples — are never 



