BIRDS OF THE WEST 15 



BIRD-DESTRUCTION. 



The great instinct of bird life as of all life is the instinct of 

 self-preservation. It is therefore a matter of great concern to 

 birds just how and where to construct their nests so that they may 

 live with least danger to themselves and rear their families with 

 the greatest certainty. The decrease in bird life during the last 

 few years has been due mostly to shot guns, but there are so many 

 sources of danger to birds that some naturalists doubt that any 

 of them "die a natural death" meaning, of course, a death without 

 violence. At Luverne, Minnesota, a few years ago several acres 

 were found covered with lapland longspurs that had met death by 

 encountering a severe storm during their northern migration. Have 

 you not seen dozens of dead birds lying beneath a line of telegraph 

 wires? Think too of the thousands of chickens, grouse and quail 

 that are frozen or smothered during the cold and snowy winters, 

 and of the havoc wrought to nests by fires and floods, by the prairie 

 wind and the farmer's plough. 



Let us see what means are used by the birds for their own 

 protection. Against winds and rain the oriole builds a swinging 

 nest at the extremity of a tree-limb. The robin plasters its nest 

 with mud to give it strength. The grebe builds a nest that will 

 float upon the water. The orchard oriole and the warblers fasten 

 their nests securely to the boughs of bushes and of trees. The red- 

 winged blackbird ties its nest to marsh reeds or the limbs of small 

 trees in western tree claims. Woodpeckers, chickadees, bluebirds, 

 phoebes and house wrens drill holes into trees or make use of holes 

 drilled by other birds. The barn swallow and the phoebe often 

 build under bridges. Eaves swallows, ovenbirds and meadow larks 

 generally roof their nests and many birds go far enough into the 

 forest to get away from the severity of the storms. Sand swallows 

 dig into sand banks and English sparrows often take posses- 

 sion of their burrows. Bob whites and plovers lay pointed eggs 

 and the wind cannot blow them very far away. Mourning doves 

 and nighthawks seem not to have learned how to secure adequate 

 protection from storms but they have ways of their own for self- 

 protection, especially against squirrels, snakes and men, the former 

 often feigning lameness when its nest is approached and the latter 

 removing its eggs to a new location. 



