216 Twelve Months With 



as sometimes happens, they acquire some love of 

 home and family. 



Among the precocial grouse and quail the old 

 birds look after their active little chicks and 

 teach them the ways of the wicked world and how 

 to feed and protect themselves, with a truly 

 parental solicitude. The altricials of necessity 

 build more safe and secure nests, because of the 

 helpless condition of their young families, whereas 

 some of the precocials build none at all. But even 

 among the former the cuckoos, doves and herons 

 build a rude nest of a few scattered sticks, through 

 which one may often see the eggs. The altricial 

 cowbird, the degenerate, builds no nest at all, but 

 foists her eggs and her helpless young nestlings 

 upon some unsuspecting sparrow, warbler or 

 vireo. 



Each species builds a characteristic nest, and 

 all nests of a particular species are very similar, 

 so that one may often identify a bird solely by 

 the kind of nest he finds. 



Almost all the trades are represented among the 

 birds, in the nests they build for rearing their 

 young. An anonymous poet has left these lines 

 referring to some of the many different bird crafts : 



"The swallow is a mason, 



And underneath the eaves 

 He builds a nest and plasters it 

 With mud and hay and leaves. 



