Ground and Underground Nests 



guillemot, the noddy favours some rocky ledge, but it 

 places seaweed thereon, though it must be confessed that 

 it displays no skill whatever in the doing of it. Year after 

 year this bird returns to the same nesting-place and each 

 season adds more seaweed to its nest ; in consequence, 

 after a few seasons it may have accumulated vegetable 

 matter to the thickness of a couple of feet. 



Rather more ingenuity is displayed by the ostrich and 

 its kind. The nest in this case is merely a hollow 

 scratched in the sand and as such slightly more advanced 

 architecturally than the nests we have already mentioned. 

 When, however, the ostrich leaves its rude nest for any 

 reason, it takes the precaution of covering its eggs with 

 sand, to conceal them from marauding animals on the 

 look-out for an inviting meal. 



There is one very curious habit of these birds that is 

 worth mentioning namely, the habit of scattering a few 

 odd eggs about the nest. What exactly is the object of 

 this peculiar trait is not very obvious. Some naturalists 

 assert that these eggs are intended as food for the young 

 birds when they first hatch. Be that as it may, the habit 

 is common not only with the ostriches, but amongst the 

 closely related emus, cassowaries and rheas. Another 

 step up the scale of skilful nest-building brings us to the 

 nests of certain game birds, such as grouse and partridges. 

 These, again, are but hollows in the ground. However, 

 they are lined with vegetation, and a certain amount of 

 skill is displayed in their construction. 



Let us not run away with the idea that the ground- 

 nesting birds are all tyros in the art of building. Many 

 remarkable nests are built on the ground. That great 

 winged sea-bird, the albatross, whose home is on the ocean, to 

 whom a visit to land is a means to an end the upbringing 

 of its young builds a remarkable mud-encircled nest. 

 Usually, birds, being far-seeing and intelligent creatures, 

 build their nests first and lay their eggs afterwards. The 

 albatross, reversing this procedure, lays its single egg on 



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