22S 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



creature, and so utterly different from, for example, such prettily marked, and running about with the greatest 

 a nestling as the young of our quails and their allies, of alertness as soon as they are out of the eggs. 

 which there may be upwards of twenty to the brood, and Again, this is entirely unlike the habits of the mega- 

 which are hatched thickly covered with a soft down, podes or Mound Birds of the East Indies, Australia, and 



other islands of the Eastern Seas. These birds 

 do not even resort to incubation to bring forth 

 their young, as they either bury their eggs in 

 the ground, something after the fashion of an 

 alligator, or else they lay them on the bare 

 ground, and then, industriously scratching, they 

 heap over them an enormous mound of earth, 

 leaves, dry sticks, and fragments of rotten wood 

 sometimes almost as much as a cartload of 

 such materials. Neither of the parent birds ever 

 sees the egg or eggs again, the progress of hatch- 

 ing being left to the heat of the sun. But what 

 is still more singular, when the young are born 

 their plumage is complete, and they are other- 

 wise highly developed. Off they go, as soon as 

 they can make their way out of the mound, and 

 none of them ever sees its parents. 



On several occasions the writer has reared 

 young humming-birds from the nest (Fig. 2) ; 

 it is curious to note their short bills as compared 

 with the long, slender ones of the adult birds, 

 and, as a matter of fact, the bills of nestlings are 

 often entirely different from what we find them 

 to be in the adults of any particular species. 



Nestlings of ducks, divers, grebes, and many 

 other strictly aquatic biids take to the water al- 

 most as soon as they are hatched; and in the 

 case of the young of the dabchick, it is very 

 pretty to see how they will, to the number of 

 two or three, sit up on the back of one of the old 

 birds as it swims about in search of food, or pad- 

 dles around among the reeds of the marsh where 

 these birds are found. 



Most herons build in trees in the marshes, or 

 along sluggish streams in the wilder parts of the 

 country, and they usually have several young to 

 the brood. These nestling herons have a peculiar 

 means of defense; for, should any one attempt 

 to climb up to the nest, they all stand up together, 

 in such a way as to obtain a good view of the 

 intruder. When he comes near enough, all of 

 them cast up the remains of their last fish dinner, 

 and, being wonderfully skillful in the matter of 

 landing the same on the face and clothing of the 

 advancing enemy, one may well imagine that, 

 unless the intruder be determined to secure the 

 specimens, he will beat a hasty retreat. 



Down on the Amazon they have a curious bird 

 called the Hoatzin ; it is about the size of a 

 grouse, and its habits are most peculiar. This 

 cannot be touched upon here, but it is well to 

 note that the very young of this species have the 

 claws and fingers of their pinions so free and so 

 conspicuously developed, that when they get out 

 upon the twigs of the tree where the nest rests, 



CURIOUSLY MARKED BIRDS' EGGS 



Figure 5. In the upper row (1, 2 and 3), is seen a complete set of eggs of our Least 

 Tern; the strong markings only occurred on one side of the egg. The four smaller 

 eggs in the two lower rows (4, 6, 7 and 9), are specimens of the egg of the boat- 

 tailed grackle (Megaquiscalus major). All of this group lay eggs with these peculiar 

 scraggly markings, the ground color being light blue or even white. Number 5 is 

 an egg of the regent bower bird of Australia and 8 is an egg of the red-backed 

 magpie of Australia. 



A PECULIAR DIFFERENCE 



This shows the reverse side of the Least Tern's eggs (Numbers 1, 2 and 3), shown 

 above. The difference in markings, so heavy on one side and so light on the other, 

 is striking. 



