Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-28
THE WORLD OF BIRDS
Domestic Affairs of Their
Wee Little Homes.
CRADLES FOR BABIES
REGULAR APARTMENT HOUSES
IN SOME TREES.
Traditions, Customs and Anecdotes Of
Large and Small Nest
Builders.
FOR BABIES

In our efforts toward a better acquaint-
ance with our feathered nelghbors most
important in study of their homemaking,
since that brings out their intelligence as
well as their individuality.
Our pity and our interest are aroused in
the beginning by the fact that very few of
the race ever have a home, in our sense Of
the word. A nest is usually nothing more
than a cradle for helpless infancy, and
when that is outgrown any tree or bush is
a home, any twig bed. Yet there are indi-
cations that We shall find-when we know
them better-that many of them have local
attachments, and make habitual use Of a
particular bush and special twig.
These temporary homes vary in size from
that of a walnut to one six feet in diameter
and strong enough to bear several men, and
they exhibit all styles of architecture, from
the simple open nest of the song sparrow in
the grass, to the elaborate three-room
structure of the umbre. Moreover, there is
hardly a known type of dwelling fashioned
by men that has not its representatives
among the structures of birds, and ade-
quately, too-according to their needs.
The low hut Of some savage races Is du-
plicated by our oven bird and the water ouzel
of the west. The underground residence Of
some of the human family is closely imi-
ers. The careless "shanty" serving as a
home in some hot countries finds fitting
counterpart in the rickety platform of the
cuckoo and the mourning dove The castles
of the old world are well represented by the
secure habitationS of woodpeckerS and owls.
Tenting on the shore, so common during the
summer months is copied by sea-lovers
among the birds, looms, who establish their
nurseries as near to the water as they can
get, and grebes, who build a fiimsy nest
among the reeds, where it is water-soaked
always, and the young are Matched ill., and
not merely on the water Our fashion of
a swinging rocking cradle or crib for
our youngsters is followed in the oriole' S
hammock and the hanging nests of vireos
and others.
So might we go on with the comparison
until We should be driven to the decision
Of the poet-"How like are birds and men,.
How the Birds Manage.
We plume ourselves upon our improve
ment over the old way of mother-ha ching
and point with pride to our incubators. But
a bird showed up the trick. A whole family
of birds have used this mother-saving de-
vice for ages, arranging heaps of earth and
vegetable matter, sometimes fifteen feet high
and twenty feet in diameter at the base.
The eggs are buried and left for the sun to
hatch. The whole process has been closely
watchd in the London Geological Gardens.
In the same place had been solved the mys-
terry of the "coming-out' of the young.
mound builder, without parental assistance
This very progressive infant would seem
naturally to belong to young America in
stead of the old world, for throwing him
self on his back he digs his own passage,
and starts out in life without aid or inter-
ference of the "old folks
Again, our modern apartment house sys-
tenn, in which many families live independ-
ent lives under one roof, is merely a copy
of the custom of many birds, notably a
gr0Sbeak Africa
brella-shaped roof of basket work under
which several hundred families build indi-
vidual nests; and nearer home the swifts
cIowding our chimneys, and the swallows
making musical our barns.
So progressive, indeed, and "up-to-date"
are some Of the birds that the so-caled
head of the family takes upon himself all
the work of home making The puffin
queer. top-heavy looking fellow that he is,
is a model of gallantry, insisting on making
the neutrality-suspicious. ten feet long
into the bank, without the least assistance
of his mate. He lies on his back, digging
with his enormous beak, and throwing out
the dirt with his webbed feet.
Life in Feathers.
In our study of life in feathers we find
also corresponding variety in domestic ar
rangements, from the hornbill who walls
up his family and feeds and looks after the
whole himself, to the European cuckoo and
the American cowbird. who makes no pre-
tense of home-making, but abandon the
whole business of incubating and rearing
the young to their far too amiable neigh
bors.
Birds do not feel obliged always to build
to a type; they are not hampered by ira
dition. Not all robin nests are cemented
with mud and placed singly in tree, al
though it is true that is a prevailing fash
ion in robindom Robin nests have been
found made Of flowers and other material
and one robin extravaganza is reported
which is quite unique, eleven nests side by
side, all woven together by one pair of
birds, and the middle one used for the
cradle. The object Of this extraordinary
feat of building is unknown, but doubtless
there was an object, If nothing more than
to prove to doubling world that birds are
not machines, always doing things in eX
actly the same way.
An Economical Lady.
A f1icher too, Of independent thought and
open mind, has been discovered, who, find
ing haystack that had been sliced square
off, leaving plain wall, was quick to see
the advantage and saving Of labor In ex-
cavation, and chiseled out typical wood
pecker nursery and reared her family there
in. 1t Is the custom of our common mock
ing bird to build an open nest in a tree, but
in Arizona, where are fewer people and
more egg-loving snakes. the bright-witted
bird selects an almost impenetrable cactus
and makes hanging nest, with the further
protection Of an entrance several inches
long and it is to be hoped that the Arizona
snakes do not dine on hooking birds.
AS an offset to the open-minded Of whom
I have spoken must tell one incident of a
bird who was a slave to family traditions,
yet who showed originality and resource
in following them. 1t was a robin. who
wished to make her nest during q very
dry time, when no mud could be found.
Mud she had get her heart on and mud
she got-in this way-vouched for by an
unimpeachable observer She went re-
peatediy to pan Of water kept for the use
of birds, pumped into the middle of 1t and
proceeded to dash water over her legs.
She then flew to the road and thrashed
around in the dust till her legs were coated
with mud, which she carefully picked off
and used in her building.
Have Their Tailors, Too.
A great deal has been said Of the in
genuity of the tailor bird of the old world
in sewing leaves together to hold the nest.
That it is ingenious is not denied, but we
have a bird Of our own who does some
thing quite as remarkable. 1t is an oriole
of California, who swings her hammock
y~na - -,