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Other documents randomly have
different content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Birds and their
nests
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Birds and their nests

Author: Mary Howitt

Illustrator: Harrison Weir

Release date: June 28, 2022 [eBook #68416]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: George Routledge and

Sons, 1871

Credits: Fiona Holmes and the Online Distributed Proofreading

Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced
from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRDS AND

THEIR NESTS ***
 Transcriber’s Notes
Hyphenation has been standardised.
For the CONTENTS on Page v, Chapter IX—Peewits 51 was missed from print in the
original, and has been added.
The layout of the Contents continuation page on Page vi, has been changed to replicate
the layout of the previous Contents page.
Page 41—changed cemetries to cemeteries.
Page 55—changed artifical to artificial.

BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS.

ROBIN AND NEST.
 BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS,
BY
MARY HOWITT.

With Twenty-three Full-page Illustrations by Harrison

Weir.

NEW YORK:
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, 416, BROOME STREET.
London: S. W. Partridge & Co., 9, Paternoster Row.
All rights reserved.
WATSON AND HAZELL,
Printers,
London and Aylesbury.
 CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introductory
Chapter 1
chapter I. —the wren 8
” II. —the goldfinch 15
” III. —the song thrush 20
” IV. —the blackbird 26
” V. —the dipper, or water-ousel 33
” VI. —the nightingale 37
” VII. —the skylark 42
” VIII. —the linnet 47
” IX. —the peewit 51
” X. —house-martins, or window-
swallows, and nests 56
” XI. —chiff-chaffs, or oven-builders,
and nest 66
” XII. —golden-crested wrens and
nest 70
” XIII. —wagtail and nest 76
” XIV. —jackdaw and nestlings 82
” XV. —spotted fly-catchers and nest 86
” XVI. —wood-pigeons and nest 92
” XVII. —white-throat and nest 98
” XVIII. —bull-finch and nestlings 102
” XIX. —missel-thrushes and nest 106
” XX. —yellow-hammer, or yellow-
head, and nest 112
” XXI. —magpie and nest 116
” XXII. —nuthatch and nest 120
Birds and their Nests.
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The birds in these pictures of ours have all nests, which is as it
should be; for how could the bird rear its young without its little home
and soft little bed, any more than children could be comfortably
brought up without either a bed to lie upon, or a home in which to be
happy.
Birds-nests, though you may find them in every bush, are wonderful
things. Let us talk about them. They are all alike in the purpose for
which they are intended, but no two families of birds build exactly
alike; all the wrens, for instance, have their kind of nest; the thrushes
have theirs; so has the swallow tribe; so has the sparrow, or the
rook. They do not imitate one another, but each adheres to its own
plan, as God, the great builder and artist, as well as Creator, taught
them from the very beginning. The first nightingale, that sang its
hymn of joyful thanksgiving in the Garden of Paradise, built its nest
just the same as the bird you listened to last year in the coppice. The
materials were there, and the bird knew how to make use of them;
and that is perhaps the most wonderful part of it, for she has no
implements to work with: no needle and thread, no scissors, no
hammer and nails; nothing but her own little feet and bill, and her
round little breast, upon which to mould it; for it is generally the
mother-bird which is the chief builder.
No sooner is the nest wanted for the eggs which she is about to lay,
than the hitherto slumbering faculty of constructiveness is awakened,
and she selects the angle of the branch, or the hollow in the bank or
in the wall, or the tangle of reeds, or the platform of twigs on the tree-
top, exactly the right place for her, the selection being always the
same according to her tribe, and true to the instinct which was
implanted in her at the first.
So the building begins: dry grass or leaves, little twigs and root-
fibres, hair or down, whether of feather or winged seed, spangled
outside with silvery lichen, or embroidered with green mosses, less
for beauty, perhaps—though it is so beautiful—than for the birds’
safety, because it so exactly imitates the bank or the tree-trunk in
which it is built. Or it may be that her tenement is clay-built, like that
of the swallow; or lath and plaster, so to speak, like an old country
house, as is the fashion of the magpie; or a platform of rude sticks,
like the first rudiment of a basket up in the tree-branches, as that of
the wood-pigeon: she may be a carpenter like the woodpecker, a
tunneller like the sand-martin; or she may knead and glue together
the materials of her nest, till they resemble thick felt; but in all this
she is exactly what the great Creator made her at first, equally
perfect in skill, and equally undeviating year after year. This is very
wonderful, so that we may be quite sure that the sparrow’s nest,
which David remarked in the house of God, was exactly the same as
the sparrow built in the days of the blessed Saviour, when He,
pointing to that bird, made it a proof to man that God’s Providence
ever watches over him.
Nevertheless, with this unaltered and unalterable
working after one pattern, in every species of bird, Jules Michelet on
there is a choice or an adaptation of material Birds.
allowed: thus the bird will, within certain limits, select that which is
fittest for its purpose, producing, however, in the end, precisely the
same effect. I will tell you what Jules Michelet, a French writer, who
loves birds as we do, writes on this subject:—“The bird in building its
nest,” he says, “makes it of that beautiful cup-like or cradle form by
pressing it down, kneading it and shaping it upon her own breast.”
He says, as I have just told you, that the mother-bird builds, and that
the he-bird is her purveyor. He fetches in the materials: grasses,
mosses, roots, or twigs, singing many a song between whiles; and
she arranges all with loving reference; first, to the delicate egg which
must be bedded in soft material; then to the little one which, coming
from the egg naked, must not only be cradled in soft comfort, but
kept alive by her warmth. So the he-bird, supposing it to be a linnet,
brings her some horse-hair: it is stiff and hard; nevertheless, it is
proper for the purpose, and serves as a lower stratum of the nest—a
sort of elastic mattress: he brings her hemp; it is cold, but it serves
for the same purpose. Then comes the covering and the lining; and
for this nothing but the soft silky fibre of certain plants, wool or
cotton, or, better still, the down from her own breast, will satisfy her.
It is interesting, he says, to watch the he-bird’s skilful and furtive
search for materials; he is afraid if he see you watching, that you
may discover the track to his nest; and, in order to mislead you, he
takes a different road back to it. You may see him following the
sheep to get a little lock of wool, or alighting in the poultry yard on
the search for dropped feathers. If the farmer’s wife chance to leave
her wheel, whilst spinning in the porch, he steals in for a morsel of
flax from the distaff. He knows what is the right kind of thing; and let
him be in whatever country he may, he selects that which answers
the purpose; and the nest which is built is that of the linnet all the
world over.
Again he tells us, that there are other birds which, instead of
building, bring up their young underground, in little earth cradles
which they have prepared for them. Of building-birds, he thinks the
queerest must be the flamingo, which lays her eggs on a pile of mud
which she has raised above the flooded earth, and, standing erect all
the time, hatches them under her long legs. It does seem a queer,
uncomfortable way; but if it answer its end, we need not object to it.
Of carpenter-birds, he thinks the thrush is the most remarkable;
other writers say the woodpecker. The shore-birds plait their nests,
not very skilfully it is true, but sufficiently well for their purpose. They
are clothed by nature with such an oily, impermeable coat of
plumage, that they have little need to care about climate; they have
enough to do to look after their fishing, and to feed themselves and
their young; for all these sea-side families have immense appetites.
Herons and storks build in a sort of basket-making
fashion; so do the jays and the mocking birds, only How various Birds
in a much better way; but as they have all large Build.
families they are obliged to do so. They lay down, in the first place, a
sort of rude platform, upon which they erect a basket-like nest of
more or less elegant design, a web of roots and dry twigs strongly
woven together. The little golden-crested wren hangs her purse-like
nest to a bough, and, as in the nursery song, “When the wind blows
the cradle rocks.” An Australian bird, a kind of fly-catcher, called
there the razor-grinder, from its note resembling the sound of a
razor-grinder at work, builds her nest on the slightest twig hanging
over the water, in order to protect it from snakes which climb after
them. She chooses for her purpose a twig so slender that it would
not bear the weight of the snake, and thus she is perfectly safe from
her enemy. The same, probably, is the cause why in tropical
countries, where snakes and monkeys, and such bird-enemies
abound, nests are so frequently suspended by threads or little cords
from slender boughs.
The canary, the goldfinch, and chaffinch, are skilful cloth-weavers or
felt makers; the latter, restless and suspicious, speckles the outside
of her nest with a quantity of white lichen, so that it exactly imitates
the tree branch on which it is placed, and can hardly be detected by
the most accustomed eye. Glueing and felting play an important part
in the work of the bird-weavers. The humming-bird, for instance,
consolidates her little house with the gum of trees. The American
starling sews the leaves together with her bill; other birds use not
only their bills, but their feet. Having woven a cord, they fix it as a
web with their feet, and insert the weft, as the weaver would throw
his shuttle, with their bill. These are genuine weavers. In fine, their
skill never fails them. The truth is, that the great Creator never gives
any creature work to do without giving him at the same time an
inclination to do it—which, in the animal, is instinct—and tools
sufficient for the work, though they may be only the delicate feet and
bill of the bird.
And now, in conclusion, let me describe to you the nest of the little
English long-tailed titmouse as I saw it many years ago, and which I
give from “Sketches of Natural History”:—
There, where those boughs of blackthorn
cross, The Titmouse’s
Behold that oval ball of moss; Nest.
Observe it near, all knit together,
Moss, willow-down, and many a feather,
And filled within, as you may see,
As full of feathers as can be;
Whence it is called by country folk,
A fitting name, the feather-poke;
But learned people, I have heard,
Parus caudatus call the bird.
Yes, here’s a nest! a nest indeed,
That doth all other nests exceed,
Propped with the blackthorn twigs beneath,
And festooned with a woodbine wreath!
Look at it close, all knit together,
Moss, willow-down, and many a feather;
So soft, so light, so wrought with grace,
So suited to this green-wood place,
And spangled o’er, as with the intent
Of giving fitting ornament,
With silvery flakes of lichen bright,
That shine like opals, dazzling white.
Think only of the creature small,
That wrought this soft and silvery ball,
Without a tool to aid her skill,
Nought but her little feet and bill—
Without a pattern whence to trace
This little roofed-in dwelling place—
And does not in your bosom spring
Love for this skilful little thing?
See, there’s a window in the wall;
Peep in, the house is not so small,
But snug and cosy you shall see
A very numerous family!
Now count them: one, two, three, four, five—
Nay, sixteen merry things alive—
Sixteen young, chirping things all sit,
Where you, your wee hand, could not get!
I’m glad you’ve seen it, for you never
Saw ought before so soft and clever.
 CHAPTER I.
THE WREN.
Truly the little Wren, so beautifully depicted by Mr. Harrison Weir,
with her tiny body, her pretty, lively, and conceited ways, her short,
little turned-up tail, and delicate plumage, is worthy of our tender
regard and love.
The colouring of the wren is soft and subdued—a reddish-brown
colour; the breast of a light greyish-brown; and all the hinder parts,
both above and below, marked with wavy lines of dusky-brown, with
two bands of white dots across the wings.
Its habits are remarkably lively and attractive. “I know no pleasanter
object,” says the agreeable author of “British Birds,” “than the wren; it
is always so smart and cheerful. In gloomy weather other birds often
seem melancholy, and in rain the sparrows and finches stand silent
on the twigs, with drooping wings and disarranged plumage; but to
the merry little wren all weathers are alike. The big drops of the
thunder-shower no more wet it than the drizzle of a Scotch mist; and
as it peeps from beneath the bramble, or glances from a hole in the
wall, it seems as snug as a kitten frisking on the parlour rug.”