Ground and Underground Nests 



animal's industry and appropriate its home. Midway 

 between the burrow-makers and the burrow-stealers there 

 are a few birds which will do their own excavation if they 

 are unable to make use of a ready-made home. 



Of these birds on the border line, the puffin is perhaps 

 the best known. This almost parrot-like sea-bird, with 

 its powerful, many-hued beak, is an ardent tunneller when 

 once it makes a start. The male undertakes most of the 

 work, and so intent does he become upon his labours that 

 it is possible to capture him without difficulty while he is 

 plying his beak to good effect in the soft soil. For some 

 reasonthe puffin's burrowis curved; moreover, it isextensive, 

 usually being three feet or more in length, and it is pro- 

 vided with a second exit, in case the arrival of some enemy 

 should make a hasty retreat imperative. Industrious as 

 a burrower, the puffin is no nest-builder, for the single 

 white egg is simply deposited on the soil at the termina- 

 tion of the burrow. 



We must not dwell too long with these ground- 

 burrowers ; there are so many that space precludes the 

 mention of them all. The stormy petrel nests in burrows ; 

 the sheldrake and stockdove do so too ; even the jackdaw, 

 failing a better nesting site, will take possession of a 

 deserted rabbit-hole. 



Let us give a little attention now to those birds which 

 nest in holes but not in the ground, the tunnellers as 

 distinguished from the burrowers of the bird world. In 

 Britain we have excellent examples of such birds in the 

 shape of the woodpeckers. Of wood-working birds, the 

 world over, there are none to compare in neatness of crafts- 

 manship with the woodpeckers. The entrances to their 

 nests are always so truly and well constructed that they 

 might have been made by a carpenter with a large brace 

 and bit. 



The woodpeckers are admirably built for the work they 

 undertake. Their beaks are straight and strong ; their 

 feet, with two toes pointing forwards and two backwards, 



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