. Peter Parley's kaleidoscope : or, Parlor pleasure book : consisting of gleanings from many fields of the curious, the beautiful, and the wonderful . h merelyscratching a hole in the earth, without even the addition of leavesor straw as a protection. The nest of the wild turkey is of avery simple structure, being composed of a few dried leaves only,but concealed as much as possible, to guard against the predatoryattacks of the crow, and other enemies. The great majority of birds, however,build the most artistical nests, selectingsituations according to their habits, eitheron the ground, in sh
. Peter Parley's kaleidoscope : or, Parlor pleasure book : consisting of gleanings from many fields of the curious, the beautiful, and the wonderful . h merelyscratching a hole in the earth, without even the addition of leavesor straw as a protection. The nest of the wild turkey is of avery simple structure, being composed of a few dried leaves only,but concealed as much as possible, to guard against the predatoryattacks of the crow, and other enemies. The great majority of birds, however,build the most artistical nests, selectingsituations according to their habits, eitheron the ground, in shrubs, in trees, on rocks,and even on human dwellings: and it is areceived opinion with many, that the moreperfect the nature of the bird, the higherfrom the ground is the nest constructed. The greatest variety prevails in the con-struction, and, without exception, the ma-terials consist of bad conductors of heat:thin twigs, grasses,fibers of plants, &c,lined with hair and feathers, and some few are formed of mud orclay. The shape is chiefly hemispherical, and rarely otherwise inthis country; Hill confirms this, and adds, that in the tropics. 320 HABITATIONS OF ANIMALS the nests of birds are more often spherical than in other countries,for two obvious reasons : for protection, namely, to the birdagainst the climate while sitting, and against the attacks of snakesand monkeys. And besides, the birds which build such nestsbreed in the season which intervenes between the spring and theautumnal rains, when the air is particularly charged with elec-tricity and subject to sudden changes of temperature, a conditionparticularly injurious to animals of dull respiration and of greatexcitability. The unhatched bird is in an inferior state of organ-ization, and therefore its existence is endangered by any strongelectrical rarefaction of the air, and by continual atmosphericalchanges; but from the peculiarity of the materials employed inthe nest, the eggs are, as it were, insulated and protec
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Keywords: ., bookauthorgoodrich, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookyear1859
