BIRDS’—NESTS 99 
peckers and kindred species, and with birds that 
burrow in the ground, as bank swallows, kingfishers, 
etc., it is a necessity. The accumulation of the 
excrement in the nest would prove most fatal to the 
young. 
But even among birds that neither bore nor mine, 
but which build a shallow nest on the branch of a 
tree or upon the ground, as the robin, the finches, 
the buntings, etc., the ordure of the young is re- 
moved to a distance by the parent bird. When 
the robin is seen going away from its brood with a 
slow heavy flight, entirely different from its manner 
a moment before on approaching the nest with a 
cherry or worm, it is certain to be engaged in this 
office. One may observe the social sparrow, when 
feeding its young, pause a moment after the worm 
has been given and hop around on the brink of the 
nest observing the movements within. 
The instinct of cleanliness no doubt prompts the! 
action in all cases, though the disposition to ee 
or concealment may not be unmixed with it. 
The swallows form an exception to the rule, the! 
excrement being voided by the young over the 
brink of the nest. They form an exception, also, 
to the rule of secrecy, aiming not so much to con-: 
ceal the nest as to render it inaccessible. 
Other exceptions are the pigeons, hawks, and 
water-fowls. 
But to return, Having a good chance to note 
the color and markings of the woodpeckers as they 
passed in and out at the opening of the nest, I saw 
i 
