CHAPTER VIII. 



COLLECTING BIRDS NESTS AND EGGS. 



This chapter is taken in part from the writer's Nests and Eggs of 

 North Americmi Birds ^ 



In making a collection of mounted birds, or when they are made 

 into the forms of skins for the drawers of a cabinet, it is often desira- 

 ble to collect their nests and eggs for the purpose of obtaining a 

 knowledge of their nesting habits. The nest with its eggs in the bough 

 of a tree or in a bush with the parent birds, when artistically executed, 

 reveals at once a most interesting chapter in the life history of the 

 species. It is always best, when possible, to preserve the nest intact 

 on its branch, and when the arrangement of the group is made, addi- 

 tional artificial surroundings or natural accessories can be added. In the 

 case of woodpeckers a section of the tree trunk may be removed to ex- 

 pose the nesting burrow and eggs. Many birds build no nest whatever, 

 simply depositing their eggs in a hollow of the sand, on the earth in a 

 furrowed field, on bare rocks, or in hollows in the sod. The murres de- 

 posit their eggs on the flat rocks, while some of the gulls and terns 

 lay them in hollows of the sand ; snipe, plovers and sandpipers deposit 

 their eggs in hollows of the ground ; the goatsuckers seek the shelter 

 of some dense thicket and lay their eggs on the bare ground or on 

 leaves midst old logs. The Nighthawk CJiordeiles virgmiamis (Gmel) 

 now commonly deposits its eggs on the flat tin or gravel roofs of high 

 buildings in cities and sometimes on bare rocks; but it chiefly resorts 

 to the ground for breeding purposes, like others of the family. In col- 

 lecting the eggs of these species and in grouping them the nest or 

 place must be imitated with the natural surroundings — the actual 

 sand, dirt, sod, etc., should be taken from the spot and arranged so as 

 to exactly imitate the place where the eggs were deposited. The 

 ground-nesting birds that build nests which can be transported are 

 quite numerous and, when properly handled, make some of the most 

 interesting studies the taxidermist can devise. Prominent among 



1. Nests and Eggs of North American Birds. The fourth edition ; introduction by J. Parker Norris. 

 Illustrations by Theodore Jasper, A. M., M. D., and \V. Otto Emerson. Columbus, f)., 1889. 



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