. A history of birds . how birds which had thus12 178 A HISTORY OF BIRDS acquired this habit should continue to make similar preparationsfor brooding when forsome other reason—to escape floods orenemies—they elected to build in trees, instead of reverting tothe older custom of seeking a hole in the trunk thereof. Sucha nest would necessarily be of a loose and rough character,but, since it served its purpose, many to this present day havenot improved thereon. The Crows, Pigeons, Herons, andAccipitrine birds, such as the Eagles, for example, build onlya rough platform of sticks. In the case of t
. A history of birds . how birds which had thus12 178 A HISTORY OF BIRDS acquired this habit should continue to make similar preparationsfor brooding when forsome other reason—to escape floods orenemies—they elected to build in trees, instead of reverting tothe older custom of seeking a hole in the trunk thereof. Sucha nest would necessarily be of a loose and rough character,but, since it served its purpose, many to this present day havenot improved thereon. The Crows, Pigeons, Herons, andAccipitrine birds, such as the Eagles, for example, build onlya rough platform of sticks. In the case of the Pigeons it is sofrail indeed that daylight can be seen through it. Nevertheless,these structures are much more durable than one might sup-pose, and in successive seasons are often either repaired or afresh nest is built upon the top of the old one, a practicefollowed by many birds of prey, until at last, as in the case ofthe Osprey, for instance, the accumulated mass, if built in atree, falls of its own Nest of the Hammer Head Some species, however, have improved upon this platformstructure, piling up sticks to form a roof or dome, such as, forexample, may be seen in the nests of the Magpie, the African Hammer-head {Scopus umbrettd) and the Quaker-parrot • REPRODUCTION—NIDIFICATION 179 {Myopsitiacus nionachiis), the only Parrot, by the way, whichbuilds a nest, all other members of the order nesting in holesin trees ; thus the domed nest in this case is significant. The transition from the platform of twigs to the morehighly finished nests such as we must now pass on to examinemay well be studied in the work of the Hawfinch {Coccothraustesvulgaris) and the Bullfinch {Pyrrhula vulgaris), which to aplatform of twigs adds a neatly wrought central cup composedof rootlets and fine hair. From nests such as these w^e maypass, by a series of infinite gradations, to cup-shaped structuresof exquisite beauty, composed entirely of the finest follow up these
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1910
