WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



in which to deposit their eggs. But most of the 

 large birds of prey inhabit lone crags, making 

 an eyrie which they repair from year to year for 

 the new brood. The ground, too, bears the less 

 pretentious houses of sparrows and larks, and the 

 scattered eggs of sand-pipers, gulls, and terns; 

 the marshes are occupied by rails, herons, and 

 ducks; the banks of rivers are burrowed into by 

 kingfishers and sand-martins; so that almost 

 every conceivable position is adopted by some bird 

 or another, and its peculiar custom usually, though 

 not by any means invariably, adhered to by that 

 species. A curious instance of change in this 

 respect is shown by the two barn - swallows and 

 the chimney-swallow, which, before the civilization 

 of this country, plastered their nests in caves, 

 and in the inside of hollow trees, as indeed they yet 

 do in the far Northwest. In the materials used, 

 and the construction of the nest, birds adapt them- 

 selves largely to circumstances. In the Northern 

 States, for example, the Baltimore oriole uses 

 hempen fibres, cotton twine, etc., for its nest; but 

 in the heat of Louisiana the same pouch-shaped 

 structure is woven of Spanish moss, and is light 

 and cool. The intelligence and foresight that some 

 birds exhibit in their architecture prove reason 



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