CHAP. VI The Domestic Life of Ajiinials 



II 



Consider the cunning often displayed in leaving or 

 approaching the nest, in removing debris which would 

 betray the whereabouts of the young, or in distracting 

 attention to a safe distance ; remember, too, that some birds 



Fig. 26.— Nest of tailor-bird (Qrthotomus benettii). (After Brehm.) 



will shift either eggs or young to a new resting-place when 

 extreme danger threatens ; estimate the energy spent in 

 feeding the brood, sometimes on a diet quite different 

 from that of adult life ; and acknowledge that the parental 

 instinct is very deeply rooted, since fostering young not 

 their own may be practised by orphaned birds of both 

 sexes. Listen to the bird which has been bereaved, and tell 

 me is not the "lone singer wonderful, causing tears" ? 



The female of the Indian and African hornbill nests in 

 a hole in a tree, the entrance to which she plasters up so 

 that no room is left either for exit or entrance. The 



I 



