150 CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



which may be several feet high, whilst some, like the redshank, 

 build a dome of grass over the eggs. Floating nests on rafts of 

 water- weeds or sticks are not uncommon, and there may be little 

 attempt at choice of situation, or the greatest care may be taken 

 in selecting a naturally concealed spot. Some of the mega- 

 podes or brush turkeys bury their eggs in the sand, and take 

 no further trouble, leaving incubation to the chance warmth 

 of the sun. Others build enormous heaps of decaying leaves, 

 the natural fermentation of which forms a hotbed in which 

 incubation takes place, without assistance from the body-heat of 

 the parents. 



Although owls select holes in trees or in caves, and line them with 

 some warm material, the diurnal birds-of-prey select open ledges, 

 generally on inaccessible cliffs, and there construct a very simple 

 nest of coarsely entangled material. Twigs and dry branches are 

 collected and roughly intertwined, and may form a great pile con- 

 taining many hundredweight of materials. The nest of pigeons 

 is a platform of twigs so slight that the eggs are visible from below. 

 Crows and herons build nests which show little more skill. The 

 magpie starts with a similar rude platform, but may surround it 

 with a hedge of thorns, or roof it over with a dome of twigs. A pair 

 of hammerkops or tufted umbres living in the London Zoological 

 Gardens constructed a nest which is a further advance on that of 

 the magpie. They made a platform of sticks, cemented with mud, 

 and covered it with a huge dome of sticks nearly two feet in height, 

 leaving a small entrance at the side. Some of the finches, as, for 

 instance, the hawfinch, begin with a platform and then place on it 

 a cup woven of hair and rootlets. Thrushes make a cup of rootlets 

 and wool and twigs, supported on a platform of twigs, and then 

 line it with a plaster of mud and cow dung. In the more elaborate 

 nests of many of the small singing birds, the use of mud as a cement 

 is discarded and the whole nest is woven of the finest hairs, vegetable 

 fibres and wool, softened during the process of building by saliva 

 from the mouths of the builders. The most curious and elaborate 

 shapes may be attained, pendulous purses, globes or retorts, or 

 hanging baskets. There may be one or more entrances, and these 

 may be prolonged to form tubes or twisted tunnels, possibly to 

 make access by snakes more difficult. The tailor birds select large 

 pendulous leaves and with their beaks pierce rows of holes 

 along the two edges of the leaf, and then first twist a thread out 

 of spiders' webs, fragments of wool or cotton, and, weaving it in and 



