NESTS IN OTHER NESTS. 29 



It is a familiar observation, that birds frequently 

 select the dwellings of man for the site of their 

 own, and with him enjoy the protection of the 

 same roof. It may not be so well known that 

 they not unfrequently select the nests of other 

 birds for the same purpose ; that is, not to dispute 

 possession of the nest with its rightful owner, 

 but simply to enjoy the shelter and protection 

 it affords to their own constructions. Several of 

 the Australian birds have this habit. There is a 

 little finch belonging to that country which often 

 builds her nest among the large sticks which 

 compose the nests of eagles. Even while the huge 

 birds are employed in the act of incubation, these 

 tiny ones venture close into their presence, and 

 bring their young to maturity under their very 

 eye without the smallest molestation on the part 

 of the latter. Another bird selects the dome- 

 shaped nests of the pomatorhinus, and with con- 

 siderable art and neatness forms a cup-like 

 depression in the top of them, which it occupies as 

 its own nest, and in which its young are hatched 

 and matured. The same fact is related also in 

 reference to the nests of the osprey, the nests of 

 which are often the seat of the nests of a number 



