38 



THE OOLOGIST 



birds' nests are made of." Let us go 

 out with him and other observers and 

 note, what we can find. 



Almost all of the larger birds which 

 buil'l in the tree tops, construct their 

 homes of twigs and small limbs, and I 

 have taken pieces all of three quarters 

 of an inch in diameter from a Red-tailed 

 Hawk's nest, and have seen limbs fully 

 four feet long in the nest of the Great 

 Blue Heron. In these birds which select 

 twigs and limbs, the largest birds use the 

 heavur twigs and the smaller birds the 

 smaller, as might be expected, and a 

 student may often tell what sized bird 

 is bui'ding iu a tree by the twigs which 

 fall from the structure. Very few of 

 the larger birds devote any time to lin- 

 ing the big stick nests, and it is not uq- 

 common to find hawk's and owl's nests 

 without a particle of any material of 

 a lining nature, the eggs being laid on 

 the platform of rubbish. The Great 

 Horned Owl frequently disposes a few 

 feathers about the coarse nest which it 

 has appropriated from the Red tailed 

 Hawk, as it rarely builds a nest for it- 

 self, preferring to take an old nest of the 

 hawk, or quite as likely occupying a 

 hollow. Nearly all of the hawks line 

 their stick nests with small fiakes of 

 bark, mos-', or some grass at times. 

 Some, as the Cooper's Hawk, at limes 

 line the nest nicely with fine roots, after 

 the manner of the Blue jay and Catbird. 

 One owl, the Long-eared, warmly lines 

 the structure it has stolen from the crow 

 with feathers, and I think this bird has 

 the warmest nest for its eggs of any of 

 the rapacious birds of my acquaintance. 

 The wild pigeon builds a very poor 

 excuse for a nest, as it is a mere plat- 

 form composed of a few slender twigs, 

 and is so loosely put together that the 

 single egg may be seen through the 

 bottom, and I have never found it lined 

 in the pigeon rookeries that I have vis- 

 ited. Pigeon's nests are so poorly con- 

 structed that they are quickly blown 

 from their locations, but many kinds of 



stick nests last for years, and I know of 

 old deserted hawk's nests which have 

 retained their positions in the big 

 crotches for tvvelve years or more, and 

 the remains of the old nests of a colony 

 of Herons are still to be seen after over 

 twenty years of wear and tear of the 

 storms. Many of the smaller birds 

 build frail structures, as the Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak and Scarlet Tanager, 

 which birds are so shiftless at times that 

 the eggs may be seen through the bot- 

 toms of the nests, the roots, weeds and 

 grass somtimes barely holding the tggs,. 

 yet again the birds build well hollowed 

 and well padded nests. 



The little Yellow Warbler selects fine 

 strippings from week stalks of a hem- 

 pen nature, and the nest has the light 

 appearance of the Baltimore Oriole's 

 home, and this light color often leads 

 to its discovery when search is made 

 for it. There are many other nests of 

 the Warblers which resemble this one, 

 being composed of similar materia's, 

 while the Goldfinch and Least Flycatch- 

 er build of nearly the same timber. 

 Still there is enough of difference in the 

 nests, as to form, size and make-up so 

 that an observer can tell the owners 

 from the nest as well as by the eggs in 

 it. Manj'^ true students of bird habits 

 can tell the name of the bird owner by 

 the nest, even if it is not at home, and 

 rarely make a mistake, and this class of 

 observers is to be admired far more 

 than the collectors who almost always 

 shoot the parent bird to prove identity. 

 It were far better to remain in ignor- 

 ance of the identification of birds and 

 nests than to destroy the beautiful birds 

 about us. Years ago when I was a lad 

 studying the creatures of the forest and 

 field and works on ornithology were un- 

 known to me, the names of nearly all 

 of my feathered friends were of my own 

 coinage, and at this time I cannot help 

 but think that it was a greater pleasure 

 to know these friends by sight than it is 

 to now known them by their scientific 



