1 66 



Wild Birds 



from such natural objects as leaves and trees. We might go 

 even a step further and maintain that some adult birds, like 

 certain of the Terns, have no knowledge of the use to which 

 the nest is put. 



A nest like that of the Oriole or the Robin, the building of 

 which we have watched, is composed of hundreds of pieces or 

 increments fibers of grass, roots, strings, pellets of earth or 



what not molded 

 into a compact and 

 symmetrical whole, 

 which serves a defi- 

 nite purpose, and 

 serves it so admira- 

 bly that it is difficult 

 to avoid the conclu- 

 sion that the bird 

 knows what that pur- 

 pose is. 



If, while some 

 Robins built a per- 

 fect nest, and others 

 built none at all, 



still others should make a beginning but stop short at every stage 

 of incompletion, it would be occasion for surprise, to say the least. 

 Yet, this is precisely what the Terns do on Matinicus Rock, Maine. 

 Some lay their eggs in a rocky crevice or depression, where they 

 often drown in the water which collects after rains, or are rolled 

 out by the wind and perish; others gather half a dozen bits of 

 mussel shell not larger than a dime from pools a few yards 

 away, or bite off a few bits of green leaf or weeds, and this 

 answers for a nest; still others carry the building to completion, 

 and fashion a really commodious nest. Every stage in the pro- 

 cess is represented after operations have ceased and the eggs 

 have been laid. Surely were mankind to conduct their build- 

 ing affairs in this indecisive, haphazard manner, they could 

 not be credited with any intelligent sense of the use which 

 houses or even temporary shelters are intended to serve. 



Fig. 101. Common Tern brooding a chick away 

 from the nest. Matinicus Rock, Maine. July, 1902. 



