NESTS, NESTING AND NESTLINGS 



343 



have seen three small 

 herons trying to balance 

 themselves upon two slen- 

 der twigs, — all that re- 

 mained of their nest. For 

 such birds, the stick nest 

 is a necessity ; for if they 

 cannot have firm objects 

 upon which to exercise 

 their feet, — clasping and 

 unclasping their toes, — 

 their muscles will never 

 develop. To put a young 



THE LAY 07 THE SANDPIPERS 

 By W. E. Carlin 



PRECARIOUS REST OF THE DUCK 

 By Alfred A. Dunham 



only swing in larger circles. 

 If the tree should give way 

 they would be dashed to the 

 ground, but otherwise they 

 are safe from all harm. Such 

 a nest can often stand the 

 storms of winter and I have 

 sometimes seen three orioles' 

 nests in one tree, showing by 

 their varying degrees of di- 

 lapidation that they had been 

 constructed during the past 

 three seasons, probably by the 

 same pair of birds. In the 

 tropics, where Nature carries 

 all her work to extremes, the 

 orioles build nests three and 

 four feet long, suspending 



heron or crow into the nest 

 of a duck is far more cruel 

 than to kill the bird at 

 once. 



Far out beyond where he 

 would dare climb, the 

 young heron sees a curious 

 bag-like affair dangling 

 to and fro from the very 

 tip of a twig. The wind 

 howls through the branches 

 and the heron's home dis- 

 solves and falls to the 

 ground, but the young 

 orioles in their deep, snug 

 chamber of woven grass, 



