FAMILY CARES— BUILDING THE HOME. 125 



some excellent examples. One of the most 

 familiar must be the tiny tunnels driven by the 

 score into the faces of sandy railway banks and 

 cliffs by the Sand Martin. It seems almost im- 

 possible that these can have been tunnelled out 

 by so small a bird, and when we examine the 

 frailty of its beak and feet the mystery is 

 deepened. The tunnels which they bore are of 

 considerable length ; at the end they expand 

 slightly and herein is placed an apology for a 

 nest, consisting of a few roots and feathers 

 pressed closely together. 



The sheldrake, one of the most beautiful of our 

 ducks, builds its nest in burrows, usually those 

 deserted by rabbits. The nest is sometimes as 

 much as ten feet from the entrance and formed 

 of bents of grass and gradually lined with down 

 plucked from its own breast ; the quality of this 

 down is said to be but little inferior to eider- 

 down. The puffin (Fratercula ardica) breeds in 

 burrows, which it sometimes excavates for itself. 

 If empty rabbit-burrows are to be had, the birds 

 take these and save themselves further trouble ; 

 if still occupied by rabbits the latter are promptly 

 evicted. Many of the petrels lay their eggs in 

 rabbit-burrows. The kingfisher {Alcedo ispida) 

 also breeds in burrows, generally those deserted 

 by the water-vole. At the far end of the burrow 

 an enlargement is made, the floor of which is 

 quickl}^ covered with a mass of fish-bones, and 

 the hard parts of the external skeletons of such 

 Crustacea as may have been captured in the 

 neighbouring streams and pools. These fish- 

 bones and other materials are the undigested 



