Chirps and 
Chatter. 
(139) THE BIRD WORLD, 
and surroundings which suggests how 
many similar nests must be overlooked. 
Only a very small proportion of the 
nests of such birds as build in studiously 
hidden places is ever found. Always 
bear in mind that the bird has to guard 
against much more accomplished 
searchers than you are—such, for in¬ 
stance, as bring the additional sense of 
smell to their aid. 
Tracing the Bird. 
Though a knowledge of the most 
likely places to look for certain nests 
is a great assistance, chance may dis¬ 
close many which would otherwise re¬ 
main undiscovered. If a bird flies out 
anywhere during nesting time, stop 
dead, and mark the spot where you are 
standing before you commence the 
search. Only the novice will be misled 
by the artifice of a bird shamming dis¬ 
ablement. You may reckon that the 
more it shams, the nearer you are to the 
nest. 
Cuckoo in Wagtail s Nest. 
At Northallerton a gentleman saw a 
Cuckoo fly from beneath his library 
window, where, in a thick bush, was a 
Wagtail’s nest. In this nest, the narrow 
entrance of which was between forked 
branches, he found that an egg had 
been deposited. As the Cuckoo could 
not itself have entered the nest, he 
brings this incident forward as evidence 
that the bird must lay the egg elsewhere 
and place it in the foster-parent’s nest. 
Without doubt, this is a habit of the 
bird, though perhaps not the invariable 
habit, for the Cuckoo’s egg has been 
found in domed nests into which the 
big bird could not possibly have 
squeezed its body. Cuckoos, too, have 
been killed with eggs in their mouths. 
The egg of the Cuckoo is small com¬ 
pared with the size of the bird, and 
could easily be carried safely, even in 
flight. The fact that scared Cuckoos 
have been seen to drop eggs from their 
beaks has given origin to the still un¬ 
proved charge that they suck the eggs 
of other birds. 
London Birds. 
It is a pretty sight in Hyde Park to 
note the increasing numbers and increas¬ 
ing tameness of the birds. You may see 
the Wood Pigeons in hundreds—among 
the shyest of birds in their own wood¬ 
land retreats, and most difficult to get 
within gunshot, yet here boldly ap¬ 
proaching groups of children and perch¬ 
ing on their hands and arms for bread 
or seed. It is an education for London 
children, teaching them how they may 
win the confidence of God’s wild 
creatures by kindness and gentleness. 
These birds, too, by their beauty of 
plumage and grace of flight and move¬ 
ment, give to the bright green turf and 
the groups near it a picturesque touch 
one would be loth to miss. We need 
hardly add that the old gentleman who 
feeds the sparrows, and commands their 
full trust, was not wanting. They come 
round him in a hovering cloud, catch 
the crumbs ere they fall, or take them 
from his hand, while admiring specta¬ 
tors watch him gladly. 
Rarities at the Zoo. 
Burmeister’s Cariama, of which two 
specimens may now be seen in the 
Eastern Aviary at the Zoo, is a beauti¬ 
ful South American bird, which has not 
lately been exhibited in the menagerie. 
This species {Chung a burmeisteri) 
is a native of the • Argentine Re¬ 
public. It is a long-legged bird, 
with a stately carriage, and in ap¬ 
pearance is not unlike the well-known 
Secretary Bird of Africa. Its place, 
however, seems rather to be among the 
Cranes than among the birds of prey. 
Its head is large, and the rather short 
beak is depressed at the tips; its toes 
are short, and furnished with strong, 
curved claws. The prevailing colour 
of its plumage is brownish-grey. In all 
these particulars there is some re¬ 
semblance between the Cariama and 
the Secretary Vulture, and it is curious 
to find such close similarity between 
two birds inhabiting Continents so 
widely separated. 
