308 Thoughts About Nests [FIRST WEEK 



Did it ever occur to you to think what the first nest 

 was like what home the first reptile-like scale flutterers 

 chose? Far back before Jurassic times, millions of years 

 ago, before the coming of bony fishes, when the only 

 mammals were tiny nameless creatures, hardly larger than 

 mice; when the great Altantosaurus dinosaurs browsed on 

 the quaint herbage, and Pterodactyls those ravenous, 

 bat-winged dragons of the air hovered above the surface 

 of the earth, in this epoch we can imagine a pair of 

 long-tailed, half-winged creatures which skimmed from tree 

 to tree, perhaps giving an occasional flop the beginning 

 of the marvellous flight motions. Is it not likely that the 

 Teleosaurs who watched hungrily from the swamps saw 

 them disappear at last in a hollowed cavity beneath a 

 rotten knothole? Here, perhaps, the soft-shelled, lizard- 

 like eggs were laid, and when they gave forth the ugly 

 creaturelings did not Father Creature flop to the topmost 

 branch and utter a gurgling cough, a most unpleasant 

 grating sound, but grand in its significance, as the opening 

 chord in the symphony of the ages to follow? until now 

 the mockingbird and the nightingale hold us spellbound 

 by the wonder of their minstrelsy. 



Turning from our imaginary picture of the ancient days, 

 we find that some of the birds of the present time have 

 found a primitive way of nesting still the best. If we 

 push over this rotten stump we shall find that the cavity 

 near the top, where the wood is still sound, has been used 

 the past summer by the downy woodpecker a front 

 door like an auger hole, ceiling of rough-hewn wood, a bed 

 of chips! 



