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. 



IT 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. 



