346 



RECREATION 



Then to make complete the resem- 

 blance to a tiny knot-hole on the S 

 branch, they cover the outside with 

 green lichens, tying them fast with 

 more cobwebs. This is the least of 

 aerial nests, and when the little birds 

 had done with it, I broke off the twig 

 and carried it home. 



The greatest of all tree nests I have 

 also collected, but in how different a 

 manner S Close to the great breakers 

 which roll in from the open Atlantic 

 upon our coast, the osprey, or fish- 

 hawk, makes its home, filling the top- 

 most crotch of some weather-beaten 

 tree with a great pile of sticks, pieces 

 of oars and wrecked boats, net, sea- 

 weed, and, in fact, almost everything 

 it can pick up in its great talons. The 

 love of home which brings a pair of 

 hummingbirds back to the same apple- 

 tree season after season, draws the 

 ospreys, year after year, to the same 

 nest. Every spring they add more 

 material to it, until at last, with a 

 groaning crash, the overladen tree 

 falls. But the spot is still sacred, and 

 the birds use the great pile of fallen 

 rubbish at a foundation and go on 



THE WILD TURKEY S NEST 



', using it for years. I selected the nest 

 ? which I wanted, the smallest and most 

 compact I could find, and when loaded 

 and crated it weighed, exclusive of the 

 crate, just 410 pounds! Many of the 

 larger nests must weigh a ton or more. 



As varied in kind and character as 

 are the nests of various birds, the 

 nestlings are even more so, individuals 

 from the same brood often exhibiting 

 very opposite traits. If you would 

 make friends with nestlings, do so be- 

 fore the parents have had a chance 

 to warn them of the danger of man- 

 kind. If you can come secretly upon 

 a nestful of young birds and carry 

 one quickly away, you can teach it in 

 an hour or two to take food from 

 your hand ; but if it has first crouched 

 in terror at its parents' alarm notes, 

 then it may starve itself to death in 

 spite of all your efforts. 



Young grouse are especially hard 

 to tame, as they become independent 

 almost as soon as they leave the shell. 

 I have known young quail which were 

 hatched under a bantam, to fly high 

 up above their coop when only two or 

 three days old. They looked like 



By E. F. Pope 



