CHAPTER IV 



CONCEALED OR COVERED NESTS 



Nests made in earth tunnels — Sand Martins — Tunnel-boring Wood-Hewers 

 — Nest of Sclertirus unibretta — Of the Kingfishers — Of the Jacamars, Todys, 

 and Bee-eaters — Of certain Parrakeets — Of the Burrowing Owl — Of the Puffins 

 —Of the Petrels— Stormy Petrel— Fork-tailed Petrel— Spectacled Petrel— Of 

 the Whale Birds— Of the Shearwaters— Cave-building Birds— The Jackdaw— 

 The Choughs— The Rock Dove— The Shag— Cock of the Rock— Oil Bird- 

 Edible Swifts — Alpine Swift — Cave-building Swallows — Nests under stones and 

 in holes and fissures of rocks — Various Petrels— Little Auk — Horned Puffin — 

 Little Owl — Certain Parrots — Various Chats — Redstarts and Accentors — Wall 

 Creeper — Rose-coloured Starling — Buntings and Swallows and Pipits — Timber- 

 building Birds — Woodpeckers and Wrynecks — Hornbills — Toucans and 

 Trogons— Barbets and Honey Guides— Parrots— Certain Cockatoos— Hoopoes- 

 Rollers — Titmice — Nuthatches— Certain Flycatchers — Sparrows — Nest of 

 Phylloscopus occipitalis — Scop's Owl — Certain Ducks — Nests in holes, in banks, 

 or under tussocks of vegetation — Robins and Buntings — Twite and Ring 

 Ousel— Mound Birds— The Philosophy of Concealed Nests. 



In this chapter I propose to make a brief review of 

 those nests that are absolutely concealed from view, 

 either in tunnels or holes, in ground, rocks and timber, 

 under stones, or even by artificial means employed 

 by the feathered architects themselves. We have a 

 great variety of birds coming within such a class of 

 architecture, belonging to widely divergent and 

 remotely related groups, a fact conclusively proving 

 that the method of nest-building, the general plan of 

 architecture, is far more intimately correlated with 

 conditions of life than with taxonomic affinity, special 



