Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-04-30
Nest.IHiding.

Nest.IHIding.
One of the things that happens when the
frost has nipped the stems and the Rovem-
Der blasts have torn down the leaves is that
We notice a lot of birds nests in plain sight,
right where we have looked all summer and
and seen none at all. The kindly leaves hid
them very successfully, we think and then
we wonder at the sagacity of bird able to
choose Just that position for its home, where
foliage upon all sides will hide it from view.
| Well, this is partly to be credited to the birds
sagacity but think it excites our admiration
still more when We look further and find that
a large number of nests have escaped our
search during the summer simply because
they were 10 plainly in view. The instant
catch sight Of One-there 1t is, fully ex-
posed, every straw and leaf and hair each
and all of the sparkling eggs.
For all birds do not attempt to conceal
their nests. Some. like the gulls, have few
enemies to fear, and breed on remote shores
i'll SO vast numbers that concealment for all
would be impossible, and the loss of few
eggs each year wouldn't matter much in the
whole army anyhow. Then there are other
hosts Of sea birds that nestle on rocky islets,
! where they have no chance to hide their
eggs; while the tree-building herons and
hawks, whose structures are CT great size,
| trust to their height above the ground and
! the courage Of their owners for safety. Bat
| it is Of none Of these | want to speak. 1t is
/ of a class Of small sUngsters who have the
! good sense to know that the way to hide
/ their treasures best is TO put them where rob
| bers would least think of looking-in broad
sight. The bird puts it's trust in being in
/ conspicuous.
Take the upland ployer or prairie pig
con, for instance, which is to be seen in the
! greatest abundance upon the plains of Ne
! braska and Dakota. 1t Is Il large, long.legged,
/ conspicuous bird, aud when in the early sum
mer you come near to where its home is, the
/ parents will wheel about your head and dart
/ hith,r and thith,r in the uosiest distress.
/ The plain stretches open on all sides to
| great distance, the grass is short and scani
and yet you look in vain for the nest Each
| tuft of grass is pushed aside every bit Of
/ sage-bush scrutiuizcd, aud if at last you do
| discover the eggs, they are found on the one
| most open spot in the whole region, sunk in
/ a fimsy little cradle that will hardly hold to-
/ gether to be lifted from the ground.
Another bird Of these plains whose eggs
are equally secret from the searcher because
there is nothing to guide the eye to them, is
| the skylark have a friend who is one OF
the sharpest-eyed people l know, and who
was encampcd on the upper Missouri river
| for several weeks i'll the summer. A skylark
was nesting close to his tent. He knew it
! for a certainty, yet never could learn just
where. At last he stumbled upon the young
birds, not yet able to fly and hardly to crawl,
saw where the whole family had often spent
the night, and even then he didn't discover
the nest, which was on bare spot of ground
within ten feet Of him. The pretty horned
! lark. or SNOW. bird" of Colorado. rears its
| young in n similarly public manner. In Min
nesota, where the grass is higher than it is on
the great plains this bird always avoids the
meadows and rank prairies, and seeks out
some hillside or short.clipped pasture or
bleak upland, aud then carefully avoids such
shelter as a tall tuft of weeds or a bit of bush
might afford.
To come nearer home into the Eastern
States, where would you look for the four
pointed eggs Of the tip-up or 'peep-sand-
! piper. that goes teetering along the sandy
margins Of our streams all over the country
snugly tucked in under some fern in a
swamp, like Hoodcock's? Not at all. They
lie right on the sand, or in the short coarse
grass of the low bank, where next winters
freshet will pile up the ice and leave the
drift-wood. You would never think, with
ont any experience, of seeking birds nest
there, aud ten to one, if you do seek, you
don't find it, The birds scream and chatter
and whirl about your head, but they need not
worry. Their nest is safe, because it is so
!
over and around it than to notice it. Those
of the beach sandpipers that stay with us (for
| most Of the species present III winter 60 to
| the Arctic zone to breed in the spring. are
equally indifferent about hiding their homes
and the terms place them right ON the sea-
weed, where We should be the least likely to
| look. But the terms always nestle in great
companies, and quickly betray their homes
! by their anger and excitement when any per-
son comes near.
A hundred examples of this practice of
! building nests in the most open situations
| might be cited, and when We came to COM
| pare the birds with those which take great
| pains to hide their structures in bushes and
! under herbage We should find that one class
was no more numerous than the other. A
| birds enemies are pretty sharp-eyed and
keen -witted. They are such robbers as snakes
| MONKEYS foxes weasels, skuuks cats and ra-
pacous birds 1t is difficult matter to hide
anything away from them in tree or clump
| of bushes or little swamp of tall grass. The
| snakes, birds cats aud monkeys can get into
| the trees and the weasels, skunks and other
marauders can nose out all the ground COW
erts Moreover, it is to Just such places that
an animal who wants a lunch of birds eggs
goes hunting for them, and consequently
those are the very lodgings sagacious bird
will avoid.
1
bunting or grassfnch is the commonest of all
our field sparrows is not due to the fact that
it is almost an impossibility to find its nest
| except by accident. This gay little fellow
| goes to live right into the middle of an open
! field. The song sparrow and lots of other
ncighbors stick to the pretty glade down by
the brook, and hang their cradles on the
leafy branches; but he says to himself
That's the very place everybody will sup
/ y.
| pleasant I'll cheat them and build out here
in the field, where nobody, from a garter
snake to q schoolboy, will ever suspect me-
| He does, and the only way to find grass
| fnch's nest is to walk back and forth across
every yard of the meadow until you scare the
mother bird from her eggs, or make sure
there is no finch there. She will not rise, Ell
ther, until your foot is almost ready to crush
her; so you must let no part of the meadow
be overlooked if you are to be quite sure of
| your prize.
Then there is the handsomely dressed,
clear-voioed oyen-bird, or golden crowned
| thrush. He goes into the woods to nest-but
where Why, right on the fiat ground among
the leaves, and perhaps close beside the path
! He scrapes a little hollow in the surface
winds some straw about the lining TO make a
smooth cup or bed, scratches up a pile of
leaves all around and even over the top into
something like u roof, and the nest is done.
| There is no shelter, no hiding anywhere.
You may walk by and see this careless little
heap of leaves and straw forty times and new
er once suspect it is birds home, until some
day you step too very near and at last alarm
| the delicate owner who has trusted so long
and so well in your overlooking her quiet res
! idence.
Well the lesson of it all is that no end of
things are going on close by us all the time
which we never see because we think we
must look for them to happen away off and
in some strange manner; and many animals
are sharp enough to take advantage of our
blindness to that which takes place under our
very noses. Ernest InQersOM, IN The PhiLa.