BIRDS' NESTS 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY 



Absence of Literature relating to Birds' Nests — Difficulty of Classifying 

 Nests — The Piiilosophy of Birds' Nests — Nests regarded as TJ'tilitarian 

 Structures — Intelligence of Birds in Nest-building — The Theory of Instinct — 

 Changed Nesting Habits and Types — Evidence against the Theory of 

 Instinct — Variation in Nest-building Skill — Wallace's Theory of Birds' Nests 

 — Faculties Employed by Birds in Nest-building — Retention of old Habits 

 by Various Birds — Nest-building Tools — Differences in Nest-type — Amongst 

 Nearly Allied Birds — Abnormal Nest Materials — Abnormal Nest Sites — The 

 Nest-building Sex — Instructions for Collecting and Preserving Nests — Neces- 

 sity for Recording Certain Facts — Preservative for Nests — Storage of Nests. 



Although birds are by no means the only creatures 

 that make nests, either to shelter themselves or for 

 the purpose of reproduction, they are unquestionably 

 by far the most closely associated in the popular 

 mind with such structures. Popularly speaking a 

 bird and a nest are inseparable terms, one invariably 

 suggesting the other. Among insects, fishes, and 

 animals, for instance, there are many elaborate and 

 cunning nest-builders, but we have little hesitation in 

 stating that birds will still continue to furnish the 

 one popular example of Nature's architects. There 

 must be few persons indeed, nowadays, unfamiliar 

 with a bird's nest of some species or another; on 



3 



