Birds' Nests 



is quite suflScient to keep the eggs together, and 

 where the vigorous nature of the chicks de- 

 mands no luxurious lining. Under such cir- 

 cumstances the various ingenious devices of 

 land birds would be entirely superfluous. It 

 seems to me that this radical difference of situa- 

 tion is a more reasonable explanation than any 

 supposed natural incapacity of water fowl, for 

 the inferiority of their nests. From the tern 

 to the oriole is a long leap, in respect of archi- 

 tectural accomplishments ; but, if the oriole 

 were transferred to the barren and desolate sea- 

 coast, he would find little need and still less 

 opportunity for his "high art;" whereas the 

 tern, if domiciled amid the oriole's natural sur- 

 roundings, would doubtless be equal to the oc- 

 casion, and reveal no one knows how much 

 latent ability. 



Very significant testimony as to the reason 

 why some birds nest in trees, and others on the 

 ground, is afforded by a gentleman who lived 

 on an island near the Bay of Fundy, which 

 was a resort of herring gulls. Like water 

 fowl in general, the various gulls nest on the 

 ground. But Audubon, when he visited this 

 island, was surprised to find many of them nest- 

 ing in fir-trees, sometimes more than forty feet 



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