The Architecture of Birds

LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES,

Duke Street, Lambeth.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Habits of cleanliness in Birds

Small animals the most cleanly

Rump-gland according to Willughby

Argument of Réaumur against its supposed use

Experiment by J. R.

Pulverizing Birds

Abreuvoir of the Continent

Washing among young birds

Serrated claws of Herons and Night-jars
Anecdote of a Swallow.
Use of the tongue as a cleaning instrument
Analogy in Quadrupeds
Analogy from the grub of the Glow-worm

CHAPTER 11.

.

Birds, solitary and gregarious, on account of food

Instance from Sheep

Turkey Buzzard and Black Vulture

Anecdote from Wilson .

Anecdote from Ord

Town Sparrows

Sparrow, Crow, and Stork courts

Rooks appoint sentinels

Leader of the Cranes.

Watch of the Golden Plover

..

.

King of the Quails

Origin of the notion of King Birds

King Bird of Paradise .

King of the Vultures

Eagle as King of the Birds

Eagle standards of nations

The Condor

The Wren, a King Bird

Solitary Birds

The Jack-snipe

The Sand-piper and Wagtail .

.

Birds, solitary or gregarious, on account of shelter or assist.

ance

The sociable Grosbeak of Africa

Anecdote of a Swallow

Analogy from Insects and Quadrupeds

Crowding together of House Sparrows

Contest for places among Bottle-tits

Roosting of the Blackbird, Thrush, and Starling .

Roosting of the Wren.

Analogy from Sheep

Birds solitary and gregarious at different seasons

The Lark

The Wheat-ear

.

CHAPTER IV.

Pairing of Birds

Extraordinary proportion of the sexes

Difference in the male parents of quadrupeds and birds

.

ib.

The swallow a favourite of the poets

Disliked by some people, and prevented from building

The barn-swallow enticed by the Americans to build

Account of a pair of barn-swallows, by Wilson

The chimney-swallow

Sometimes builds in wells and coal-pits

Nests on garden-shears, and on a siuffed owl

Chain of nests in a chimney

Illustrated from mason-bees

CHAPTER VI.-MASON-BIRDs, continued.

The flamingo

Its singular pyramidal nest

Account of, by Dampier

Other accounts, by Catesby and Descourtilz

The masonry of the crested penguin

Bartram's account corrected by Descourtilz

The masonry of the song-thrush

Fanciful accounts, by Aldrovand, Pliny, and Åristotle

Accounts by Turner, Montagu, and Jennings

Foundation of the nest

Interior plaster-work.

Locality chosen for the nest

One built on a harrow

Concealment of the nest

Nest of the blackbird

The baker-bird of America

CHAPTER VII.-CARPENTER-BIRDS.

The term carpenter applied to several species

The toucan

The tomtit hews out holes to nestie in

The wryneck and the nuthatch

A nuthatch's endeavours to escape from a cage

The bill of one worn away with hewing,

Illustrated by the proceedings of gall-Hies and of rats

Woodpeckers misrepresented by Buffon

Life compared with that of the sqnirrel

Defended by Wilson

Wilson's history of a wounded woodpecker

His account of the downy woodpecker

Carpentry of the downy woodpecker

Carrying off chips for concealment

Direction of the excavations

Caution of the redheaded woodpecker

Its nest assailed by the black snake

Bedding of chips in some nests

The pileated woodpecker an excellent carpenter

The ivory-billed woodpecker

History of one by Wilson

Nest and eggs found

in the ceutre of a growing tree

Illustration of this from a tree at Brockley

CHAPTER VIII.-PLATFORM BUILDERS.

Nests not necessarily hollow

Platform nest of the ringdove

The platform-nest distinguishes the ringdove from the domestic

Domestication of the stockdove

Carolina pigeon
Passenger-pigeon of America

Immense assemblage when breeding
Extent of their colonies

Astonishing flights.
Platform nests of some birds of prey

The griffard, or martial eagle
Variation in building
Nest of the bald eagle

Bald eagle partial to cataracts

Golden eagle's nest in Derbyshire

Descriptions of this bird, from various authors

Aristotle's account confirmed

CHAPTER IX.-PLATFORM-BUILDERS, continued.
The bird of Washington

Narrative froin Audubon

Nest of the Washington eagle
The osprey

Its breeding colonies
Similar in manners to the rook

Americans fond of the bird
Herons are platform builders

Belon's account of the old French heronries
Old English laws respecting
Heronries now in Britain
Supposed friendship of the crow and heron
Heronry and rookery in Westmoreland
Plumes of the heron used for ornaments
Breeding places of the great heron
Breeding-place of the night-heron

Breeding-place of the little white heron

The stork and the crane

Storks' pests on the columns of Persepolis

ib.