XIII. 



BIRDS' NESTS AND NESTING 

 WAYS. 



IN the study of the nests and nesting habits of 

 birds, we find that they divide themselves 

 naturally into certain categories as resulting 

 from the different sites they choose for their 

 nests. A large number, as we know, build in 

 trees, high or low, or in bushes, others on the 

 ground, or very near it ; some few seek the 

 habitations of man. Another large class build 

 in holes in trees, natural or excavated by them- 

 selves, on crags and rocks, in crevices of any 

 kind. Others, again, build on or near water ; 

 some utilise the old nests abandoned by previous 

 owners, many make no real nest at all. One 

 species, fortunately unique, not only takes 

 felonious possession of the nests of others, but 

 adds insult to injury by handing on to them as 

 well the weighty burden of the brooding and 

 upbringing of the usurper's progeny, and this, 

 too, at the expense of their own innocent families. 



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