File:Birds and their nests and eggs - found in and near great towns (1907) (14755506825).jpg

Identifier: birdstheirnestse00vosg (find matches)
Title: Birds and their nests and eggs : found in and near great towns
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Vos, George Herklots
Subjects: Birds Birds Birds
Publisher: London : G. Routledge New York : E.P. Dutton.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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with these there were lumps ofhorse hair clippings (obtained we know notwhere), together with a good deal of shortstiff green grass. These formed a substantiallining. Inside of all, at the bottom andsides were odds and ends of soft wool, bitsof string and small feathers, to receive the eggs.The whole made a very solid structure and musthave weighed ten pounds at least (Plate XXI).It would have required a hurricane to dislodgeit from the tree, or even to shake it apart. Plate XXII shows what a carrion crowsnest looks like in course of construction, andalso shows the bird. Substitute a rook forthe crow, and it will illustrate the same forthat bird. Finding it impossible to getnear enough to one of these nests to photo-graph it large, as seen from below, I venturedto build one myself, copying the original asclosely as I could. How far I have succeededI must leave the reader to judge. I usedabout four hundred sticks in its construction,and found myself able to put together the MID-APRIL n
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Plate XXII : What a carrion crow or rooks nestlooks like in course of construction. CarrionCrow (J size). rough foundation, but did not attemptthe intricate lining. The rooks nest is notso substantial as the carrion crows. I have 74 MID-APRIL seen them partially build more than one be-fore deciding on the one for the eggs. (Com-pare the wren, Part I, pp. 82-5.) Crows evi-dently provide for eventualities, as they oftenchoose isolated wind-driven spots, thoughthey do not build so high as rooks, and preferto build against the main trunk of the tree.The young, too, are doubtless very active intheir movements and rough with their claws.So altogether the birds make their nestsstrong and heavy. It is said, and I thinkrightly, that they use the same nest for two,three, or more seasons in succession, merelydoing general repairs and re-lining when egg-laying time comes. And no wonder, as thestructure must require a great deal of labouron their part and take a long time to make.(I know it took m

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