THE LIFE ABOUT THE NEST
In view of the fact that birds display much activity about their nests
there is a great advantage in studying the nesting bird. Once locate
an occupied nest, and by quietly watching for a time, your field glass
and bird guide will usually enable you to learn the owner's name. If
you do not know where any nest is to be found go out and hunt for one.
This in itself will be an exciting sport, although it should be pursued
with good judgment. Children unattended should not be permitted to
hunt nests in spring. A very excellent way to find one is to keep a
sharp watch upon birds at the time when they are engaged in nest
building.
_Nest Hunting._--By noticing every bird suspected of being interested
in domestic affairs, you are pretty {22} sure to see one before long
with grass, twigs, rootlets, or something of the kind in its bill. Now
watch closely, for you are in a fair way to discover a nest. The bird
may not go directly to the spot. If it suspects it is being watched it
may hop from twig to twig and from bush to bush for many minutes before
revealing its secret, and if it becomes very apprehensive it may even
drop its burden and begin a search for insects with the air of one who
had never even dreamed of building a nest. Even when unsuspicious it
will not always go directly to the nest. From an outhouse I once
watched a Blue Jay, with a twig, change its perch more than thirty
times before going to the fork where its nest was being built.
Sometimes a bird may be induced to reveal its secret by placing in its
sight tempting nesting material. By this means Mrs. Pearson last
summer found a Redstart's nest. Discovering a female industriously
hopping about near the camp, and suspecting what it was seeking, she
dropped some ravellings of a white cotton string from the veranda
railing, letting {23} them fall where the bird could see them. These
proved most acceptable, and the Redstart immediately appropriated them,
one at a time, with the result that she soon betrayed her nest.
Early morning is the best time of the day to find birds working at
their nests, for then they are most active. Perhaps a reason for this
is that the broken twigs, leaves, and dead grasses, wet with the dews
of night, are more pliable, and consequently more easily woven into
place.
For nesting sites birds as a rule prefer the open country. Rolling
meadowlands, with orchards, thickets, and occasional streams, are ideal
places for birds in spring.
_Number and Colour of Eggs._--The full complement of eggs laid by a
bird is known as a set or clutch. The number varies greatly with
different species. The Leach's Petrel, Murre, and some other sea
birds, have but one egg. The Turkey Vulture, Mourning Dove,
Hummingbird, Whip-poor-will, and Nighthawk lay two. Various Thrushes,
such as the {24} Robin, Veery, and Wood Thrush, deposit from three to
five, four being the most usual number. Wild Ducks, Turkeys, and
Grouse range from eight to a dozen or more; while Quails sometimes lay
as many as eighteen.
Eggs are variously coloured, and some are so marked that the blending
of their colours with those of their surroundings renders them
inconspicuous. Thus those of the Killdeer, Sandpiper, and Nighthawk,
for example, are not easily distinguished from the ground on which they
lie.
Many eggs that are laid in holes or other dark places are white without
markings of any kind, as illustrated by those of the Chimney Swift,
Belted Kingfisher, and all Woodpeckers. In such instances Nature shows
no disposition to be lavish with her colouring matter where it is not
needed.
_Behaviour When Nest Is Discovered._--After the young are hatched it is
even easier to find nests by watching the parents. The nestlings are
hungry at all hours, and the old ones are visiting the nest at frequent
intervals throughout the day. Birds {25} behave very differently when
their nests are discovered. A Cuckoo will glide away instantly and
will make no effort to dispute your possession of her treasures. A
Crow will also fly off, and so will a Wild Duck and some others. On
the other hand, the Mockingbird, Robin, or Shrike, will raise a great
outcry and bring about her half the birds of the neighbourhood to pour
out on you their vials of wrath, unless you have the good judgment to
retire at once to a respectful distance. Warblers will flit from bush
to bush uttering cries of distress and showing their uneasiness. The
Mourning Dove, Nighthawk, and many others will feign lameness and seek
to lead you away in a vain pursuit. A still larger number will employ
the same means of deception after the young have been hatched, as, for
example, the Quail, Killdeer, Sandpiper, and Grouse.
However much a bird may resent your intrusion on the privacy of its
sanctuary, it is very rare for one to attack you. I remember, however,
a boy who once had the bad manners to put his hand into a {26}
Cardinal's nest and had a finger well bitten for his misdeed. Beware,
too, of trying to caress a Screech Owl sitting on its eggs in a hollow
tree; its claws are very sharp, and you will need first-aid attention
if you persist. Occasionally some bird will let you stroke its back
before deserting its eggs, and may even let you take its photograph
while you are thus engaged. On one occasion I removed a Turkey
Vulture's egg from beneath the sitting bird. It merely hissed feebly
as I approached, and a moment later humbly laid at my feet a portion of
the carrion which it had eaten a short time before--a well-meant but
not wholly appreciated peace-offering.
_Lessons to Be Learned._--An infinite variety of interesting things may
be learned by watching birds at their nests, or by a study of the nests
themselves. How many persons have ever tried to answer seriously the
old conundrum: "How many straws go to make a bird's nest?" Let us
examine critically one nest and see what we find. One spring after a
red squirrel had destroyed the three eggs in a Veery's {27} nest which
I had had under observation, I determined to study carefully its
composition, knowing the birds would not want to make use of it again.
The nest rested among the top limbs of a little brush-pile and was just
two feet above the ground. Some young shoots had grown up through the
brush and their leaves partly covered the nest from view. It had an
extreme breadth of ten inches and was five inches high. The inner cup
was two and one-half inches deep, and measured the same across the top.
In its construction two small weed stalks and eleven slender twigs were
used. The latter were from four and one-half to eight inches long.
The main bulk of the nest was made up of sixty-eight large leaves,
besides a mass of decayed leaf fragments. Inside this bed was the
inner nest, composed of strips of soft bark. Assembling this latter
material I found that when compressed with the hands its bulk was about
the size of a baseball. Among the decaying leaves near the base of the
nest three beetles and a small snail had found a home.
{28}
The Veery, in common with a large number of other birds, builds a nest
open at the top. The eggs, therefore, are often more or less exposed
to the Crow, the pilfering Jay, and the egg-stealing red squirrel.
This necessitates a very close and careful watch on the part of the
owners. At times it may seem that the birds are not in sight, and that
the eggs are deserted; but let the observer go too near, and invariably
one or both old birds will let him know of their presence by voicing
their resentment and sending abroad their cries of distress.
_Character of Material Used._--A wide variety of material is used by
birds that build open nests. Cotton and feathers enter largely into
the composition of the lining of a Shrike's nest. In Florida the
Mockingbird shows a decided preference for the withered leaves and
stems of life-everlasting, better known as the plant that produces
"rabbit tobacco." The nest of the Summer Tanager is made almost
entirely of grasses, the outer half being green, freshly plucked blades
that contrast strikingly with the {29} brown inner layer with which the
nest is lined. Many of the Thrushes make use of large flat leaves, and
also of rags and pieces of paper. Robins stiffen their nests by making
in them a substantial cup of mud, which, when dry, adds greatly to the
solidity of the structure. On the island of Cape Hatteras there are
many sheep, and many Prairie Warblers of the region make their nests
entirely of wool.
The most dainty structure built, in this country, by the bill and feet
of birds, is the nest made by the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. When
completed it is scarcely larger than an English walnut, and is saddled
on a small horizontal limb of a tree, often many feet from the ground.
It is composed almost entirely of soft plant fibres, fragments of
spiders' webs sometimes being used to hold them in shape. The outer
sides are thickly studded with bits of lichen, and practised, indeed,
is the eye of the man or woman that can distinguish it from a knot on a
limb. Although the Hummingbird's nest is exceedingly frail, there is
nothing on record to show that {30} any great number of them come to
grief during the summer rains. It is, however, not called upon for a
long term of occupation. Within a month after the two white eggs are
laid the young depart on their tiny pinions. Young birds that require
a longer period for growth before leaving the nest are furnished
usually with more enduring abiding places. {31} In the case of the
Bald Eagle, the young of which do not fly until they are many weeks
old, a most substantial structure is provided.
[Illustration: Nest of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird]
It was on the twentieth of January, a number of years ago, that the
writer was first delighted by the sight of a Bald Eagle's nest. It was
in an enormous pine tree growing in a swamp in central Florida, and
being ambitious to examine its contents, I determined to climb to the
great eyrie in the topmost crotch of the tree, one hundred and
thirty-one feet above the earth. By means of climbing-irons and a rope
that passed around the tree and around my body, I slowly ascended,
nailing cleats for support as I advanced. After two hours of toil the
nest was reached, but another twenty minutes were required to tear
aside enough of the structure to permit climbing up one of the limbs on
which it rested. In doing this there were brought to view several
layers of decayed twigs, pine straw, and fish bones, showing that the
birds had been using the nest for many years. Season after season the
huge structure had been enlarged by {33} additions until now it was
nearly five feet in thickness and about four feet across the top.
[Illustration: The Bald Eagle's Eyrie]
[Illustration: Gannets nesting on the cliffs. Bonaventure Island, Gulf
of St. Lawrence.]
At this date it contained two fledglings perhaps three weeks old.
Having been led to believe that Eagles were ferocious birds when their
nests were approached, it was with feelings of relief that I noticed
the parents flying about at long rifle-range. The female, which, as is
usual with birds of prey, was the larger of the pair, once or twice
swept within twenty yards of my head, but quickly veered off and
resumed her former action of beating back and forth over the tree-tops
two hundred yards away.
_Nests in Holes._--The members of the Woodpecker family, contrary to
certain popular beliefs, do not lay their eggs in hollow trees but
deposit them in cavities that they excavate for the purpose. The bird
student will soon learn just where to look for the nest of each
species. Thus you may find the nesting cavity of the Red-headed
Woodpecker in a tall stump or dead tree; in some States it is a common
bird in towns, and often digs its cavity in a telephone {34} pole.
Some years ago a pair excavated a nest and reared their young in a
wooden ball on the staff of the dome of the State House in Raleigh,
North Carolina.
On the plains, where trees are few, the telegraph poles provide
convenient nesting sites for Woodpeckers of various species. While
travelling on a slow train through Texas I counted one hundred and
fifty telegraph poles in succession, thirty-nine of which contained
Woodpeckers' holes. Probably I did not see all of them, for not over
two-thirds of the surface of each pole was visible from the car window.
Not all of these holes, of course, were occupied by Woodpeckers in any
one season.
Flickers, or "Yellowhammers," use dead trees as a rule, but sometimes
make use of a living tree by digging the nest out of the dead wood
where a knot hole offers a convenient opening. The only place I have
ever known them regularly to nest in living trees is in the deserts of
Arizona, where the _saguaro_ or "tree cactus" is about the only tree
large enough to be employed for such a purpose. In the {35} Northern
States Flickers sometimes chisel holes through the weatherboarding of
ice-houses and make cavities for their eggs in the tightly packed
sawdust within. They have been known also to lay their eggs in nesting
boxes put up for their accommodation.
In travelling through the pine barrens of the Southern States one
frequently finds grouped about the negroes' cabins and plantation
houses the popular chinaberry, or Pride of India tree. Here are the
places to look for the nest of the Hairy Woodpecker. In that country,
in fact, I have never found a nest of this bird except in the dead,
slanting limb of a chinaberry tree.
The member of this family which displays most originality in its nest
building is the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. It is a Southern bird, and
the abode for its young is always chiselled from a living pitch-pine
tree. This, in itself, is very unusual for any of our eastern
Woodpeckers. The bird, however, has a still stranger habit. For two
or three feet above the {36} entrance hole, and for five or six feet
below it, all around the tree, innumerable small openings are dug
through to the inner bark. From these little wells pour streams of
soft resin that completely cover the bark and give the trunk a white,
glistening appearance, which is visible sometimes for a quarter of a
mile. Just why they do this has never been explained. It is true,
however, that the sticky resin prevents ants and flying squirrels from
reaching the nest, and both of these are known to be troublesome to
eggs and young birds.
A simple plan, which is usually successful in finding out if a
Woodpecker is at home in its nesting hole, is to strike a few sharp
blows on the tree with some convenient club or rock. After a little
treatment of this kind the bird will often come to the entrance and
look down, as if to inquire into the meaning of all the disturbance.
If the nest has been newly made many fragments of small chips of wood
will be found on the ground beneath the tree.
_Variety of Situations._--The student who takes up {37} the subject of
nest architecture will soon be impressed not only with the wide
assortment of materials used, but also with the wonderful variety of
situations chosen.
[Illustration: The Grebe or "Water Witch"]
The Grebe, or "Water Witch," builds one of the most remarkable nests of
any American bird. It is a floating raft, the buoyant part of which is
the green {38} stems of water plants, not bent over, but severed from
their roots and piled across one another. On this platform is
collected decaying vegetation gathered from beneath the water. Here
the eggs are deposited, and are carefully covered with more decaying
vegetation when the bird desires to be absent from the nest.
_Variation in Families._--Sometimes there is wide variety in the
character of the nests of different species classified as belonging to
the same family. The Flycatcher group is a good example of this fact.
Here we have as one member of the family the Kingbird, that makes a
heavy bulky nest often on one of the upper, outermost limbs of an apple
tree. The Wood Pewee's nest is a frail, shallow excuse for a nest,
resting securely on a horizontal limb of some well-grown tree. Then
there is the Phoebe, that plasters its cup-shaped mass of nesting
material with mud, thus securing it to a rafter or other projection
beneath a bridge, outbuilding, or porch roof. Still farther away from
the typical Flycatcher's {39} nest is that made by a perfectly regular
member of the family, the Great-crested Flycatcher. The straw and
other substances it collects as a bed for its eggs and young is carried
into some hollow tree, old Woodpecker hole, or nesting box. Often a
cast-off skin of a snake is used, and sometimes the end is permitted to
hang out of the hole--a sort of "scare-crow," perhaps, intended for the
notice of annoying neighbours.
[Illustration: A male plumbous gnatcatcher feeding young]
_Meagre Nests._--Heretofore, mention has been made only of the nests of
birds built with much labour and usually constructed in trees or
bushes. A very large number of species, however, lay their eggs on the
ground with little or no attempt to gather around or beneath them any
special nesting material. The Killdeer's eggs are simply deposited in
a slight hole scratched in the earth, usually in an open field or on a
rocky hillside. The only lining is a few grass blades or smooth
pebbles. To protect them from enemies the birds depend much upon the
peculiar marking of the eggs, which makes them look like the {40}
ground on which they lie, and this seems to be a sufficient safeguard
for the eggs and offspring of the species. The Nighthawk lays her two
eggs on the bare ground in a field or open woods; and the
Whip-poor-will's nest is on the fallen leaves of a thicket at any spot
which the bird happens to select.
The Gulls so common along our coast and about the larger lakes make
substantial nests, as a rule--but not always. I have found them on the
islands along the coast of Maine containing not a dozen blades of
grass, a seemingly scant protection against the danger of rolling away
to destruction.
On the sandy islands of the Atlantic Coast, from Long Island southward,
many species of Terns make nests by simply burrowing a slight
depression in the sand among the sea-shells. Some of the sea birds of
the far North, as, for example, the Murres and Auks, often lay their
eggs on the shelving cliffs exposed to the sweep of the ocean gales.
These are shaped as if designed by nature to prevent them rolling off
the rocks. They are very large at one {41} end and toward the other
taper sharply. When the wind blows they simply swing around in circles.
Although we sometimes speak of the bird's nest as its home, such really
is not the case, for the nest of the wild bird is simply the cradle for
the young. When the little ones have flown it is seldom that either
they or their parents ever return to its shelter.
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