148 Wild Birds 



less promptly, according to the necessity of the female for 

 dropping her eggs. An imperfect nest does not necessarily 

 imply youth and inexperience in the builder, for when this need 

 is urgent the work is likely to be scamped. 



While a few birds lay their eggs on the bare ground, or 

 deposit them in a natural cavity, most gather some kind of 

 nesting material. Many build very elaborate structures, which 

 are often cradle and home combined, securing for the egg an 

 equable distribution of warmth, protecting the young during 

 infancy, and affording the tending parent some degree of com- 

 fort, when it does not shield her from sun and rain. 



Amid all the endless variety in the position, form, size, and 

 materials of the nest in the different species of birds, or resulting 

 from the vagaries of different individuals, we recognize a certain 

 type-form characterized by the cup or saucer-shaped inner 

 wall, as in the Sparrows, the Crow, the Gull, and in by far the 

 largest number which build nests at all. Such true circular 

 rims, such symmetrical deep or shallow molds, as perfect as if 

 thrown on a potter's wheel, what marvels of art and intelligence 

 do they not suggest! But as we shall see, this stereotyped 

 form is their most mechanical characteristic, and in its essence 

 is as purely ingrained as the form of the egg. 



We shall strike the root of the matter most surely by follow- 

 ing closely the actual process of construction of a single nest 

 from start to finish. Under the head of nidification, which many 

 writers seem to have forgotten means nest-building, much has 

 been written about the completed product the nest, but so 

 little concerning the builders at work that fresh observations 

 should not come amiss on the most common birds. 



Certainly among those which perch and sing no better 

 average representative could be chosen than the Robin, and on 

 June 24th, I was fortunate in finding a pair which had made a 

 beginning, and were not averse to being watched. 



At the moment my record began, a few minutes before five 



