on the history of birds’ nests.



121



whatever other material she requires as the foundation, in the fork

of a tree or shrub, in a hole in a bank, or whatever other site she

may have selected. She next proceeds to collect, one at a time,

pliant sticks, bents, etc., with which, holding one end in her beak,

she hops round the foundation. When the nest is in a forked branch

the material thus becomes enlaced and held in place by the divergent

twigs round which it is carried, and as soon as the walls thus formed

have attained a strength which appeals to the builder, she tucks in

loose ends and then flies off to seek material for the lining ; the

latter is brought to the nest a little at a time, until it sometimes

rises above the level of the walls, and then the hen squats down

upon it and turns round and round, at the same time scratching with

her claws ; by this means the soft mass is compressed and felted,

and nothing remains to be done excepting to add an inner lining of

hair or fine fibre, and (if the bird has testhetic tastes) a little

ornamentation of the outside walls.


But many cup-shaped nests are not half so elaborate in

construction, and this is especially true of birds which build in holes

in the ground or in banks, sucb as Larks or Wagtails, which often

merely collect a mass of dry bents and mould them into a cup by

sitting in the middle and turning round. I have made as good nests in

half a minute by taking a bandful of hay in one hand and squeezing

my other fist with a rotary movement into its centre, nor have the

birds I made them for disdained to sit in them.


The most ffirasy-looking, though one of the strongest, of cup-

sbaped nests is the beautifully-netted receptacle constructed by the

species of Sporophila, of which Hudson observes: “ So light is the

little basket-nest that it may be placed on the open hand and blown

away with the breath like a straw, yet so strong that a man can

suspend his weight from it without pulling it to pieces.” Why did

not he say that St. Paul’s Cathedral might be suspended from it ?

There is no humour in exaggeration which is not extreme, and,

mind you, Sporophila forms its nests of fine fibrous roots or horse¬

hair; in my bird-room fine willow-fibre (used for filling grates in

summer) was employed. How did birds learn to net and plait ?


* Itobins, Nightingales, Meadow-pipits and some others, when they utilise such

sites build far more finished nests.



