The Birds and Poets 215 



former may be mentioned quail, grouse, sand- 

 pipers, snipe and plover, and among the latter, 

 bluebirds, robins, sparrows and all our song birds. 

 The precocial chicks are born covered with 

 feathers or down, and actively toddle about as 

 soon as they break through the shell. I once 

 found a nest of the spotted sandpiper with four 

 eggs in it, and upon returning only one week later 

 discovered that all the young birds had hatched 

 and run away. 



The altricials, on the other hand, are born naked 

 and helpless, blind and dumb, and require the 

 most careful and protracted nursing to bring them 

 to the self-supporting stage. In this nurturing 

 process, of course, the family tie is strengthened, 

 and the nest of an altricial is at least a nursery, 

 and not a mere precocial birthplace. In some 

 instances the birds show considerable affection for 

 the nest itself long after the young are gone and 

 the nesting season is over, roosting upon or near 

 it until migration. 



Some birds use their nest homes for rearing two 

 or three little broods during the summer, and some 

 return to the old home the following season. The 

 eagle, if not molested, returns to the old nest year 

 after year, adding a few sticks each season until 

 it often becomes of enormous size and thickness. 



It requires about five weeks for a pair of robins 

 to build a nest and nurse the first little family 

 to the point where they can fly, and if the parent 

 birds rear two or three broods from the same nest, 



