THE BBTBLOPMBNT OF BIEDS. 23 1 



some carefully formed open ones, some very rough open ones, 

 and some make none at all. Thus the Guillemots are content 

 to lay their single egg, without shelter or protection, on the 

 naked surface of a ledge of rook, where its conical shape, how- 

 ever, affords it a certain help in retaining its place. 



The Penguin is said to carry its one egg about with it in a 

 sort of pouch of the skin of the belly ; reminding us of the 

 Kangaroo amongst beasts. 



The Goatsucker and the Stone-curlew lay their eggs on 

 the ground without any previous arrangement for their pro- 

 tection, though they are efficiently protected by careful selec- 

 tion as to their surroundings. Many Gulls and Plovers lay 

 their eggs in a shallow pit. Pigeons only make a nest of a few 

 sticks loosely put together. Grebes collect vegetable refuse and 

 pile it on some growing water-weed and lay on it. The mounds 

 built and supplied with refuse by the Megapodius have been 

 already described. The Magpie makes a domed nest which 

 bristles with thorns. Some birds make use of burrows, as does 

 the Burrowing-owl (Speotyto cunieularia) and the Sand-martin; 

 while our Kingfisher generally makes a so-called nest with fish- 

 bones ejected from its stomach, thus differing widely from the 

 Sand-martin, which makes a " feather bed " in the bottom of the 

 burrow it breeds in. The Woodpecker makes use of a hole in 

 a tree-trunk, which it perforates. Many small Birds seem to 

 moisten and glue together the twigs and straws of their nest 

 with their saliva, but the adhesive nests of the House-martin 

 are known to all. Some Swifts, however, secrete a saliva 

 which rapidly hardens, and so construct a sort of isinglass nest, 

 which is the material whereof " birds'-nest soup " is made. 



The Chaffinch and Goldfinch make admirable open nests, 

 but the "Wren makes a domed one. Some domed and covered 

 nests have a pendent, cylindrical tube, which has to be traversed 

 to reach the nest's interior. 



The Indian Tailor-bird (Orthotonvus longioaudd) selects a 

 broad leaf, and sews the edges together with thread-like fibre. 

 The hollow interior it lines with fine grass and vegetable down. 



The female Hornbill retires into the hollow of a tree, the 

 opening of which is closed in by her mate with a partition of 

 mud, which drying, forms a solid wall, through an aperture left 

 in which he assiduously feeds her and her young. 



As a rule, only those birds in which the female is dull coloured 

 make open nests. Certain Birds in which both the sexes are 



