PLATFORM BUILDERS. 55 
dian believes that the head, skin, or even feathers 
of certain birds confer on the wearer all the virtues 
or excellences of those birds. Thus I have seen a 
coat made of the skins, heads, and claws of the ra- 
ven; caps stuck round with heads of butcher-birds, 
hawks, and eagles; and as the disposition and cour- 
age of the ivory-billed woodpecker are well known 
to the savages, no wonder they should attach great 
value to it, having both beauty, and, in their estima- 
tion, distinguished merit to recommend it.”’* 
CHAPTER V. 
PLATFORM BUILDERS. 
Ir seems an essential property of a nest that it 
Should be constructed so as to secure the eggs from 
rolling out; and the term accordingly always sug- 
gests the idea of a cup-shaped cavity, more or less ' 
hollow. Many species, however, which nestle on 
the ground, are neither at the trouble of selecting a 
hollow place nor of excavating one, but content 
themselves with a horizontal flat, there being little 
danger in such positions of the eggs tumbling about. 
Even should they be moved, the mother bird can 
easily rearrange them. In cases, also, such as the 
rotch (Mergulus melanoleucus, Ray), which nestles 
on bare rocks, the mother bird lays only a single 
egg. We can easily understand why the nests of 
birds which nestle on the ground are constructed 
with little art; but what are we to say to the prac- 
tice of a considerable number of birds which nestle 
on trees, and other lofty and exposed situations, and 
form a flat horizontal nest, without the slightest cav- 
ity or depression for containing the eggs and young ? 
* Wilson, Amer. Ornith., iv., p. 24. 
