The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-01
NEsT-BuILD1NG OF
How They Have Evolved
 Time of the Dragoo

Time of the Dragoo
 Did it ever occur to you to at the first nest was rke-wha the first reptile-like scale f1uttei nose Far back before Jurassic tim millions of years ago, before the comi or pony fishes. when the only mann aais were tiny, nameless creatures, ha4uly larger than mice; when the great allantosau- rus dinosaurs browsed on tlle quaint herbage, and pterodactyls-thlpse raven ous. bat-winged dragons of the ar hovered above the surface of tne earth, in this epoch we may imaginf par oI long-tailed, skinny-winged creatures which skinned from tree to tree, per haps giving an occasional fWitcn or flop--the beginning of the fnarvelous flight motions. Is it not likely Inat the telosaurs who watched hunHrily rom the swamps saw them disappdar at last in holIowed cavity beneath a rotten knot-hole? Here the soft shelled, tur- tle-like eggs were leid, and when they gave forth the ugly creatur6llnSs did not Father Creature flop to the top most branch and utter a gurgling cough most unpleasant grating sound, but grand in it's significance, as the opening chord in the symphony of the ages 10 follow-until the mockingbird and nightingale hold us spellbound by the wonder of their minstrelsy!
 Turning from our picture of the ancient days, we find that some of the birds or the present time have found the first way of nesting still the best. II we pushed over this rotten stump we VIII find that the cavity near the top, where the wood is still sound. has been used l the past summer by the dowIfy wood pecker-a front door like an auger hole, ceiling of rough hewn wood, a bed Of mealy chips!
 i The chickadee goes step further, and shows his cleverness in sdmetiEnes choosing a cavity aleady made, and, in- stead of rough, bare chips, the six or eight chickadee youngsters arg happy on hair mattress of a closely woven lfeltlike substance.
 Perhaps we should consider tpe. kfag- fisher the most barbarous of all the birds which form a shelter for their home. With bill for pick and shovel she bores straight into a sheer clay bank, and at the end of six-fbot tun- nel her young are reared, their nest a mass of fish bones-the residue iof theii dinners. Then there are the aeriel ma. sons and brickmakers-the caves swal. lows, who carry earth up into the all and bit by bit, attach 1t to the eve. and form It into a globular, long necket flash. The barn swallows mix the clay with straw and so form very firm struc lures on the rafters above the hay mows.
 But what of the many nests of grass es and twigs that we find in the woods How closely they were concealed whil, the leaves were on the trees, and how firm and strong they were while in use the strongest wind and rain of summer only rocking them to and fro! But now we must waste no time or they will dis. appear. In a month more almost all will have dissolved into fragments and fallenn to earth-their mission accom-. plished
 Some look as if disintegration had al. ready begun, but if we had discovered them earlier in the year, we would have seen that they were never less frat aF,,,,es ss loosely constructed than we find .netl now.Such Is euckoo's nest, sucn ,,,o,,rv,i,,o doye,s or . beroy,.s warely a tIa+ rIa+sorr,, of : fe,v ,ntarlacsd wigs, tbro,,gb which the aggs 70 ,,,s;pIa from bolo,y 1xy,,,r .o,,,a n,,,s,. ~, reless or so unslxiiful? The European etckoo ;s narasita ,;lse our corvhira living her eggs in inc nests if other hiris, so perhaps neglect of household dutfe.s IS in inc blood Rut this stvle of arcyitec- ture seems to answer all the req ments of doves and herons, and. al tbouob wa can daroo,;sb ora of lhese fiinsy platforms with a sweep of our hand, yet such nest seems sofn9n noW to resist wind and rain Just as long as the bird needs It.
 Did you ever try to make nest yvur- self? If not, take one apart some lifne even the s,mnlast--and trv "a nAt 1t together apain Trsa no str,ns or ord. but fasten it to a crotch, put some faar. bles in it and visit 1t after the prse storm. After you have picked up all liie marbles from the ground you will np- preciate more highly the skill whiH. q bird shows in the construction of les home. Yet whether bird excav'ses it's nest in earth or wood, or weave' or plasters it. the work is all done py means of two straight pieces of hof the bill.