Nesting site

“ Woods and orchards are his chief haunts, but gardens are frequently visited, and if nest-boxes with small holes be hung up on the trees round the house he and his mate may often be induced to hatch and rear their family under our protection and observation. In spring his saw-sharpening note becomes elaborated into a merry little song, and he proceeds in company with his mate to choose a nesting-site—this is always in a hole in a wall or tree, or even in a letter-box ”

“ Since nests are used only once there would be no tendency to adopt the old nest. However, abortive nests, usually little more than a few strands of nesting material secured to the fork, might stimulate the birds to continue building. Re-use of a single nest-site in 15.8 per cent of 38 nests built in 1960 seems to be more than fortuitous circumstance. ”

“ It, too, would find a more abundant food supply in the vicinity of farm-buildings and bridges. The protected nesting-sites afforded by sheds and porches would likewise stimulate its nesting-instincts, and attract the bird as we see it attracted each spring. ”

“ Round each small farmhouse the birds could be seen in hundreds busily feeding young in the nests. These wooden houses, usually several miles apart, seem to be the only suitable nesting places for House Martins in the country. ”

“ While I was watching the pine-tree household, the other nest, in the top of a low, flat-topped cedar, perhaps twenty-five feet high, and profusely fringed with Spanish moss, became of even more interest. I could not see into the nest, for there was no building high enough to overlook it, but I could see the bird when he stood upon the edge. Sitting, in a warm climate, is not particularly close work. ”

“ Detached nesting-boxes containing finely-sifted moist sand or cinder ashes, good straw, and a little hay on top, should be placed against the walls of the house, which is preferable to fixed rows of nests, since they can readily be moved, limewashed and cleansed. ”

“ A long door hinged at the top and hooked at the bottom should form the back of a row of nests. You open this to gather eggs and to clean the nests. The front, where the hens enter, should be in behind under the platform. As it is rather dark in there, the hens are pleased, because they like to preserve the old-time fiction that they are hiding their nests away. The nest should be five or six inches deep. Straw is the best nesting material. Short hay is next best. A hen cannot be happy with excelsior twisted round her toes and an unhappy hen is an unproductive hen. ”

“ Its nest, usually placed on grassy knolls, in fresh-water marshes near the sea, is made of dried weeds and grasses and lined with the down of the bird. It is evident that the female performs all the duties of incubating the eggs and carrying for the young, for during the nesting period large flocks are observable that consist entirely of males, constantly feeding in their accustomed haunts. ”

“ Its nesting-habits make it interesting to young and old. Though loyal to a nesting-locality, it will make its neat nest in a great variety of places, such as boxes, empty jars, small pails, or gourds, if placed conveniently, or in wren-houses. ”

“ With tail turned to the edge of the nest the bird shoots it off to a distance of two or three feet, and it may strike the ground six or seven feet from the nesting-tree. The only significance which such actions have is that of keeping the nest clean. The advertisement of the nest-stains on the leaves below is a matter of indifference to these bold and persistent outlaws, who have little to fear from any enemy save men."
Mr. William Cross, the well-known dealer in living zoological specimens, died at Liverpool on April 7th. ”

“ During the summer of ’85 I found nests of the kingbird and scissor tail in the same tree, and the nests and eggs were identically the same; so to make sure of the identity, I had to wait until both birds had occupied their own nest.
Their favorite nesting places are in the scrubby postoak and mesquite bushes growing on our broad prairies. The nests are usually placed in forks at from six to thirty feet from the ground, and constructed of various materials, such as weed-tops, wool, cotton, rootlets, paper, rags, etc., and lined with fibrous roots, wool, cotton, etc. ”

“ Herbage will grow luxuriantly at the stream-side, and birds will be enticed to nest in places where, after a heavy rainfall, there will rush a raging torrent, to carry away birds, nests, eggs and all. Some say that nesting birds can foretell the weather, and choose their nesting-places accordingly—building on the banks and higher ground if the season will be wet, but in the hollows if dry. ”

“ That the mocking-bird baby lives for three weeks in the nest; that part of that time the parents carry the nestlings about on their backs; that when old enough the young [Pg 31] are pushed out of their nest, and always fall to the ground. ”

“ They remain all the year, nesting in decayed logs, posts, stumps, and even in sides of houses, although they prefer the edge of a wood. If they can find a hole to suit them, very well; if they can't, they will make one. Their devotion to their young is remarkable. A nest in a decayed stump was uncovered, and the mother bird twice taken off by hand, and each time she returned and covered her brood. ”

“ They left the nest quietly in thrasher-fashion on the opposite side of the bush when I was a few feet distant. In no case except when I caught one of the young that had left the nest did they show any parental concern. In nesting as well as in migrating they seem to have a go-as-you-please gait. During the three days observation I saw incomplete sets of fresh eggs, sets partly incubated, deserted nests and eggs, and young birds grown and partly grown. ”

“ This may partly account for the fact that when birds are robbed of their first, second, or even third set of eggs, they invariably build another nest in close proximity to the old one, as pointed out in my paper "A Study of Subsequent Nestings." ”

“ A nest with three eggs among the heather.
Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) .—Numerous on Foula and elsewhere. We found them nesting in a variety of situations, as below the eaves of a stable, on sloping ground between two boulders on one of the islands near Scalloway; and in Unst, in the loose stone base of a low sod fence within a few inches of a little stream. They seem to place their nests anywhere within shelter. ”

“ There is a curious diversity in his nesting habits: he generally prefers a hole in a wall, or some safe, convenient cavity, and will make vigorous war on and eject other species, like the house-martin, from their nests and nesting-holes; but when such receptacles are not sufficiently numerous, or it appears safe to do so, he builds in trees, making a large, conspicuous, oval, domed nest of straw, mixed with strings, rags, and other materials, and thickly lined inside with feathers. ”

“ Such a country also affords good nesting retreats, with brier-patches and straw where the nest may be safely hidden, and where the young birds may secure safe hiding places from animals and birds of prey ”

“ The nest, which consists of a small pad of dried grass and fibres, is usually placed in some depression on the ground; a hoof-print is considered an especially suitable site. As the bird sits very close, the nest is not easy to find. But when flushed the hen generally flies straight off the nest without first running along the ground; thus, if the spot from which the bird gets up be carefully marked, the nest ought to be found without much difficulty. ”

“ His nest is found in barns and outhouses, upon the beams of wood which support the roof, or in any place which assures protection to the young birds. It is cup-shaped and artfully moulded of bits of mud. Grass and feathers are used for the lining. “The nest completed, five or six eggs are deposited. They are of a pure white color, with deep rich brown blotches and spots, notably at the larger end, round which they often form a zone or belt.” The sitting bird is fed by her mate. ”

“ When nesting time arrives — that is to say, towards the end of the summer — they give up their gregarious habits and live in pairs, billing and kissing like turtle-doves in the orchard or wild crabtrees, where a flat, bulky nest is rather carelessly built of twigs, grasses, feathers, strings — any odds and ends that may be lying about. The eggs are usually four, white tinged with purple and spotted with black. ”

“ Sometimes adapting its nest to the building material at hand, it weaves it of grasses and twigs, and suspends it from the limb of a bush or tree overhanging the water, where it swings like an oriole's. The entrance to the nest is invariably on the side.
More devoted homebodies than these little wrens are not among the feathered tribe. Once let the hand of man desecrate their nest, even before the tiny speckled eggs are deposited in it, and off go the birds to a more inaccessible place, where they can enjoy their home unmolested. ”

“ These that flit through my smoky dusk may not make city nests, though the finding of such nests would not surprise me. Of course a night-hawk's nest, here or anywhere else, would surprise me; for like her cousin, the whippoorwill, she never builds a nest, but stops in the grass, the gravel, the leaves, or on a bare rock, deposits her eggs without even scratching aside the sticks and stones that may share the bed, and in three days is brooding them—brooding the stones too. ”

“ I think I am correct in saying the birds piled one upon another at least two feet deep when the net was sprung, and it seemed to me that most of them escaped the trap, but on killing and counting, there were found to be over one hundred dozen, all nesting birds.
When squabs of a nesting became fit for market, these experts, prepared with climbers, would get into some convenient place in a tree-top loaded with nests, and with a long pole punch out the young, which would fall with a thud like lead on the ground. ”

“ It is a well-known fact that she completely ignores her eggs and young ones.
Nesting.—The same author describes the nesting habits of this species, in northeast Greenland, as follows:
It is peculiar, that the male has well-marked breeding spots before the breeding begins and certainly before the female has laid her first egg; but this fact has been proved by several solid examinations. June 26, 1907, I observed on the beach of the Bjergandeso in the Stormkap district, that the nest building was executed by the male. ”

“ If by accident you enter the neighborhood of its nest, you soon find out that this timid, soft-voiced little creature can be roused to rashness and make its presence disagreeable to ears and eyes alike as it angrily darts about your unoffending head, pecking at your face and uttering its shrill squeak close to your very ear-drums. All this excitement is in defence of a dainty, lichen-covered nest, whose presence you may not have even suspected before, and of four or five bluish-white, speckled eggs well beyond reach in the tree-tops. ”

“ The swallows that sing on the brown gable of the barn beyond the precincts may have their nests plundered by prowling schoolboys. The hollow trees in the orchard, the chinks in the old wall of the lane, are not wholly safe from the village birds'-nester. But here is sanctuary inviolate, from which no bird was ever driven.
Year after year the fly-catchers repair their nest in the plum tree trained against the wall. No hand disturbs the martins that build under the broad eaves. No sweet singer ever here paid with his life the penalty of his taste for cherries. ”

“ A bird’s nest is a bedroom, dining-room, sitting-room, parlor, and nursery all in one; for there the young birds sleep, eat, rest, entertain their guests (if they ever have any) , and receive their earliest training. Yet there is no doubt that in treating the nest as a nursery we make use of the aptest simile that could be chosen. Those who have not given the matter special attention would scarcely suspect how many and varied are the interests that cluster around these dwellings of our little brothers and sisters of field and woodland. ”

“ The nest, or place of deposit, is usually rounded, and about eight inches in diameter, being globular, and well lined with the hair of the female. This nest is not placed at the end of a burrow, or in any particular one of their long galleries, but oftentimes in the road that may lead to hundreds of yards distant. From immediately around the nest, however, many galleries branch off in divers directions, all tending towards such spots as are well known to the parents to afford an abundance of food. I cannot ascertain how long the young remain under the care of the mother. ”

“ I find no authority in the books for this bird to build upon the ground, yet here is the nest, made chiefly of dry grass, set in a slight excavation in the bank, not two feet from the water, and looking a little perilous to anything but ducklings or sandpipers. There are two young birds and one little specked egg, just pipped. But how is this? what mystery is here? One nestling is much larger than the other, monopolizes most of the nest, and lifts its open mouth far above that of its companion, though obviously both are of the same age, not more than a day old. ”

“ Nursing females of both species tolerated the male parent in the nest. A male and female often sat side by side in the nest and by means of their bodies participated in covering the young. Males were not observed to attempt any [472] defense of the nest, or of the young. Females were tolerant of older young in the nest when another litter was born and was being nursed. In one nest, a female of P. truei gave birth to a litter of three when her older litter was 29 days old. ”

“ The nest being placed on the open-ground—often pasture, or in a field of mowing grass—it is very liable to be disturbed; many, therefore, are the instances of the bird’s tender solicitude either for the young or for its eggs, one of which I will give from Mr. Jesse. “In case of alarm,” he says, “either by cattle grazing near the nest, or by the approach of the mower, the parent-birds remove their eggs, by means of their long claws, to a place of greater security, and this I have observed to be affected in a very short space of time.” ”