The Nests of Some Common Birds 



With Photographs by the Author 

 Ralph E. Wager 



The nests of birds are as distinctive as their coloration, their 

 call notes, or their songs. This is true, of course, in the broad 

 sense only. For as we find variations in their coloration or their 

 call notes, so we may expect to find variations in their nests. 

 These variations may consist in differences in placement, form, 

 or materials of which they are constructed. But it is not difficult to 

 recognize the nests of each species as there are certain characteristics 

 by which they may be identified. For as birds have become adapted 

 to different modes of life, they have by a similar process of 

 selection, found certain nesting habits best suited to their partic- 

 ular way of getting on in the world. Oftentimes it is difficult to 

 understand just why birds nowadays nest as they do. Thus 

 it is hard to explain just why the night heron, for example, nests 

 in trees, frequently miles from their feeding grounds. Be that 

 as it may, having chogen their site, certain materials present 

 themselves for the use of the bird, and each then works out his 

 own problem as best he can. These characteristics become 

 specific apparently, so that one may learn by these peculiarities, 

 to distinguish the nests of the birds of each species, usually, 

 with certainty. 



Because of these distinguishing qualities the study of the nests 

 of birds becomes interesting. To discern in a nest some mark 

 or marks, identifying it as belonging to some particular bird, 

 is an attainment well worth working for, because it adds much 

 to one's enjoyment of his out-of-door experiences. 



In the spring you are watchful for the nests of your bird friends, 

 and today you unexpectedly find one you had not known before. 

 "Ah yes," you say, "I'm glad to know that you are intending to 

 locate right here, my good brown thresher friends. I'll be inter- 

 ested to know how you succeed in your undertaking." And to- 

 morrow you locate another, and are surprised to find that a pair 

 of catbirds have staked their claim in your honeysuckle bush, 

 and you welcome them. And the next day you pause to contemp- 

 late a pair of rough-winged swallows driving their shaft into the 

 soft bank of the creek where the steep bank at the bend affords 

 a vertical surface, and you wonder how far they have succeeded 



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