BIRDS'-NESTS. 117 



and the crowded state of the apartment, the matter ia 

 BO neatly managed. But ornithologists are all silent 

 upon the subject. 



This practice of the birds is not so uncommon as il 

 might at first seem. It is indeed almost an invariable 

 rule among all land birds. With woodpeckers and 

 kindred species, and with birds that burrow in the 

 ground, as bank swallows, kingfishers, etc., it is a ne- 

 cessity. The accumulation of the excrement in the 

 nest would prove most fatal to the young. 



But even among birds that neither bore nor mine, 

 but which build a shallow nest on the branch of a 

 tree or upon the ground, as the robin, the finches, the 

 buntings, etc., the ordure of the young is removed to 

 a distance by the parent bird. "When the robin is 

 seen going away from its brood with a slow heavy 

 flight, entirely different from its manner a moment 

 before on approaching the nest with a cherry or 

 worm, it is certain to be engaged in this office. One 

 nay observe the social sparrow, when feeding its 

 young, pause a moment after the worm has been 

 given and hop around on the brink of the nest ob- 

 serving the movements within. 



The instinct of cleanliness no doubt prompts the 

 action in all cases, though the disposition to secrecy 

 or concealment may not be unmixed with it. 



The swallows form an exception to the rule, the 

 excrement being voided by the young over the brink 

 D! the nest. They form an exception, also, to the rule 

 of secrecy, aiming not so much to conceal the nest as 

 to render it inaccessible. 



