152 ARTISTS AND AETISANS IN THE FEATHERED WORLD. 



The female penguins hatch their eggs by keeping them 

 close between their thighs, and if approached during 

 the time of incubation, move away, carrying their eggs 

 with them. Some kinds make some attempt at nest- 

 building by lining a hole in the ground with grass. As 

 they are rather gregarious birds, this work does not pro- 

 ceed without much fighting. Every opportunity is em- 

 braced by the birds to steal grass or hay from their 

 neighbors' nests when they do not look, and to drag it 

 into their own ; on discovery, the wronged bird is at 

 once ready to retaliate, and thrusts with their long bills 

 or blows of the wings must decide who will be the owner 

 of the stolen goods. 



Proceeding in our observations, we come to birds which 

 also do not yet build a nest, but seek holes in trees or old 

 walls, caves in rocks, etc., for their eggs. They may 

 put some soft materials into these, but we cannot yet 

 speak of real nests. Birds of this kind are especially 

 apt to make use of holes prepared by other more diligent 

 workmen (woodpeckers or squirrels), and not unfre- 

 quently a fight ensues between the righteous owner and 

 the intruder. Such cave-dwellers among the birds are 

 the creepers (Certhia familiaris), whose bills are really 

 not able to do any such excavating as their relatives, the 

 woodpeckers, also most owls, the wryneck (Yunx tor- 

 quilla), the starling, and nearly all parrots, which, how- 

 ever, sometimes dig holes in trees or in the ground and 

 may be reckoned as miners, of which I shall speak later. 

 Special mention should be made of the New Holland 

 goat-sucker (Caprimulgus australis), which resides in the 

 hollow branches of the eucalyptus, technically called 

 "spout" by the colonists. When the sportsman wishes 

 to know whether a " spout" is occupied by one of these 

 birds he has nothing more to do than to give a sharp 

 tap to the branch with a stick or an axe. Should the 

 bird be at home, it runs quickly to the entrance, pops out 



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