CHAPTER II 



NESTLESS BIRDS, ANNEXERS AND 

 PARASITES 



Conditions of a nestless state— Occasional lapses in the Nest-building Habit— 

 Nestless Birds— Tropic Birds and Vultures — Ringed Plover— Coursers and 

 Pratincoles — Stone-Curlew — Gulls and Terns — Auks — Nestless Petrels — Goat- 

 suckers—Origin of the Nestless Habit— Number of eggs laid by nestless species 

 —Annexing Birds— Birds of Prey and Owls— The Kestrel— The Hobby— Honey 

 Buzzard— Orange-Legged Hobby— Iceland Jer Falcon— The annexing habit 

 not always universal in the same species — Egyptian Vulture — Turkey Vulture — 

 Cooper's Hawk — Tawny Owl — Long-Eared Owl — Tengmalm's Owl — Hawk 

 Owl— Eagle Owl— American Barred Owl— Saw-whet Owl— Green Sandpiper — 

 Wood Sandpiper— Swallows— Birds building in nests of other species— Great 

 Titmouse— House Sparrow— Purple Crackle- Spanish Sparrow in nest of 

 Stork— Return of Birds to old Nests— Parasitic Birds— Origin of the habit of 

 Parasitism— Coloration of Eggs of Parasitic Birds— Cow-Bird— Birds lajdng 

 astray — Birds evicted by other species — Benevolent characteristics in Birds — 

 Origin of Parasitism through the young. 



Notwithstanding the fact that birds are so inti- 

 mately associated with nests, there are a good many 

 species that never make a nest at all, or that profit by 

 the architectural exertions of more industrious birds, 

 whilst some few there are that shirk all parental 

 duties, make no nest, and leave all care of their 

 young to Others. The absence of any nest-building 

 inclination or propensity is by no means an indication 

 of a low stage of development in birds, or of any 

 lack of intelligence, but is most probably entirely 

 due to the conditions under which their eggs are 

 hatched and their young brought to maturity. 



