Birds’ Nests 
is quite sufficient to keep the eggs together, and 
where the vigorous nature of the chicks de- 
mands no luxurious lining. Under such cir- 
cumstances the various ingenious devices of 
land birds would be entirely superfluous. It 
seems to me that this radical difference of situa- 
tion is a more reasonable explanation than any 
supposed natural incapacity of water fowl, for 
the inferiority of their nests. From the tern 
to the oriole is a long leap, in respect of archi- 
tectural accomplishments; but, if the oriole 
were transferred to the barren and desolate sea- 
coast, he would find little need and still less 
opportunity for his ‘‘high art;’’ whereas the 
tern, if domiciled amid the oriole’s natural sur- 
roundings, would doubtless be equal to the oc- 
casion, and reveal no one knows how much 
latent ability. 
Very significant testimony as to the reason 
why some birds nest in trees, and others on the 
ground, is afforded by a gentleman who lived 
on an island near the Bay of Fundy, which 
was a resort of herring gulls. Like water 
fowl in general, the various gulls nest on the 
ground. But Audubon, when he visited this 
island, was surprised to find many of them nest- 
ing in fir-trees, sometimes more than forty feet 
149 
