. Bird lore . tly lined with a few weed stems and leaves. The depth of thenest was very noticeable. Because of its simplicity, I expected to find it muchmore hollow. However, there is a reason for it being deep. The four sharplypointed, huffy eggs, thickly and heavily spotted or splotched with dark brown,particularly so at the larger end, completely filled the little nest. The eggsare placed in the nest with the pointed ends down; thus they fit together per- (287) 288 Bird - Lore fectly and occupy a much smaller space than by any other arrangement. It isundoubtedly a provision made by nature s
. Bird lore . tly lined with a few weed stems and leaves. The depth of thenest was very noticeable. Because of its simplicity, I expected to find it muchmore hollow. However, there is a reason for it being deep. The four sharplypointed, huffy eggs, thickly and heavily spotted or splotched with dark brown,particularly so at the larger end, completely filled the little nest. The eggsare placed in the nest with the pointed ends down; thus they fit together per- (287) 288 Bird - Lore fectly and occupy a much smaller space than by any other arrangement. It isundoubtedly a provision made by nature so that the large eggs may be coveredwell during incubation by such a relatively small parent. Several pictures of the nest were taken, and a box supported by a few stickswas put up nearby, to be replaced later by the camera, after the bird hadbecome accustomed to the presence of the box. After a few days the camerawas put up and several good pictures were taken of the female incubating andsettling on the SPOTTED SANDPIPER SETTLING QN HER EGGS I wanted to see how she would respond to changed conditions, so I placedmy cap over the nest and awaited developments. She soon came quietly alongthrough the grass up to where her eggs were covered, walked around andaround the cap and also over it, not seeming to understand what had happenedto the nest. No attempt was made to remove or creep under the cap. Thenest was then covered with a large leaf. She soon returned, and to my sur-prise, sat down exactly in the middle of it. But the leaf did not feel just rightto her, so she began turning herself around and around in the nest. Afterturning a dozen or more times, she seemed satisfied with the new order ofthings and sat quietly. I next removed the leaf and repeated the experiment The Spotted Sandpiper 289 by placing small sticks across the top of the nest. On her return, no attemptwas made to remove them with her bill but they were pushed aside with herbreast when she settled on the
Size: 1696px × 1473px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
