. The bird. Birds. 250 THE NEST. ficiency of tools, and in tins rude effort of concentration and kneading by the mere pressure of the breast. The mother does not trust to the male bird for all this; but she employs him as her purveyor. He goes in quest of the materials—grasses, mosses, roots, or branches. But when the ship is built, when the interior has to be arranged— the couch, the household furniture—the matter becomes more difficult. Care must be taken that the former be fit to receive an egg peculiarly sensitive to cold, every chilled point of which means for the little one a dead limb.
. The bird. Birds. 250 THE NEST. ficiency of tools, and in tins rude effort of concentration and kneading by the mere pressure of the breast. The mother does not trust to the male bird for all this; but she employs him as her purveyor. He goes in quest of the materials—grasses, mosses, roots, or branches. But when the ship is built, when the interior has to be arranged— the couch, the household furniture—the matter becomes more difficult. Care must be taken that the former be fit to receive an egg peculiarly sensitive to cold, every chilled point of which means for the little one a dead limb. That little one will be born naked. Its stomach, closely folded to the mother's, will not fear the cold ; but the back, still bare, will only be warmed by the bed ; the mother's precaution and anxiety are, therefore, not easily satisfied. The husband brings her some horse-hair, but it is liard ; it will only serve as an under-stratum, a sort elastic mattress. He brings hemp, but that is too cold; only the silk or silky fibre of certain plants, wool or cotton, are admissible ; or better still, her own feathers, her own down, which she plucks away, and deposits under the nursling. It is interesting to watch the male bird's skil- ful and furtive search for materials ; he is ap- prehensive lest you should learn, by watching him with your eyes, the track to his nest. Frequently, if you look at him, he will take a different road, to deceive you. A hundred ingenious little thefts respond to the mother's desire. He will follow the sheep to collect a little wool. From the poultry-yard he will gather the drop- ped feathers of the mother hen. If the farmer's wife quit for a moment her seat in the porch, and leave behind her distaff or ball of thread, he ,^—•— - .. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original
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Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: ., bookauthormich, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbirds
