. The Oölogist for the student of birds, their nests and eggs . ason tothink the birds had nested before thatdate. The eggs in a set vary from four tosix in number, but most commonly fiveare laid. The ground color is a delicatemilky white, rather sparingly markedwith dots of pale reddish brown. Theyvary in shape from rounded to elong-ate ovate, and always impress me asbeing very large for such a small bird,averaging in measuren:ent .65 x .49inches. These wrens are most often indus-trious builders of decoy nests. Onepair of birds will generally stake outa claim covering about one hundredyards c
. The Oölogist for the student of birds, their nests and eggs . ason tothink the birds had nested before thatdate. The eggs in a set vary from four tosix in number, but most commonly fiveare laid. The ground color is a delicatemilky white, rather sparingly markedwith dots of pale reddish brown. Theyvary in shape from rounded to elong-ate ovate, and always impress me asbeing very large for such a small bird,averaging in measuren:ent .65 x .49inches. These wrens are most often indus-trious builders of decoy nests. Onepair of birds will generally stake outa claim covering about one hundredyards cf territory, making im-provements here and there in theshape of false nests, often to the num-ber cf six or eight These decoysare almost always built entirely cfmoss, and in this way tliey may be dis-tinguished from the real nest whichhas a liberal facing cf dead the f rst set of eggs be taken,a second set is often laid in one ofthese decoys, which is about theonly use I have ever seen for them. Iwill not say the only use, because 70 THE OOLOGISl. 1. Isaac E. Hess, Philo, Ills. Climbing for Red Ta I Hawks Eggs, April, 1307 THE OOLOGIST. 71 when an inti-uder comes into theirterritory, both wrens will hop aroundthese false nests scolding at a tremen-dous rate. The male bird nearly always singsnear the sitting female, as is charac-teristic of most wrens, but in spite ofthis a search for the nest is a gooddeal like the proverbial hunting for aneedle in a haystack. On only one oc-casion have I been able to see the fe-male on the nest, for she usuallyleaves at the first approach of danger,and is seldom to be noticed in the vi-cinity while the intruder is present. Of all the birds in my acquaintance,these are the most particular as tohow their nest is examined. Shoulda finger be introduced ever so care-fully, for the purpose of ascertainingthe contents they will invaribly desertif the full set is not laid. This is amost distressing habit to the collector,as the nest cavi
Size: 1188px × 2103px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidologistf, booksubjectbirds
