With nature and a camera

Chapter V. Nests, eggs, and young

Sparrows stealing nests

I fear that, from an ethical point of view, the actions of many birds during the breeding season would not present a very edifying spectacle. I have seen a stable with upwards of forty Martins' nests under its eaves, half of which were occupied by Sparrows. Many of them were, of course, old ones, which had been confiscated between the departure and return of their rightful owners, but others had been forcibly occupied directly they were built. Indeed, I have witnessed a pair of Sparrows steal a Martin's nest before the outer wall of mud had actually been completed. If they happen to find eggs in a nest they have decided to raid they eject them, and I strongly suspect the young too, from the unfeathered little creatures I have found dead upon the ground directly beneath their nests. That Sparrows will also endeavour to steal each other's nests we have satisfactorily proved. Last spring my brother fixed a small box up against a brick wall just outside his bedroom window, in order that, with his camera hidden behind the curtains, he might make some photographic studies of the old birds feeding their young. During May a pair of birds took possession of the quarters prepared for their accommodation, and in due time a cosy nest containing five speckled eggs was the result. All went well until another pair of birds of the same species cast envious eyes upon the little wooden box with a neat round hole in front. One morning a fierce battle was the result and when it was over, and the prodigious din had subsided, two broken eggs lay upon the window sill, a third on the garden path, and of the two remaining in the nest, which was sadly torn about and dishevelled, one had a great hole pierced in its side.

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Sparrows, in their turn, suffer from the dishonesty of Starlings, by which they are sometimes robbed of cosy holes they have taken much pains to make in the sides of hayricks. I once saw a Starling eject a pair of Sparrows from their nest in one of the divisions of a barrel-shaped pigeon-cote erected on the top of a pole. It was quite comical to see the usurper stand defiantly in the doorway of the house she had taken possession of, whilst the rightful owners talked loudly at a safe distance from her beak, or fluttered round without getting help or heed from a dozen neighbours sharing the same cote. When the Starling flew out, the ejected tenants hotly pursued her in a make-believe attempt at administering some wholesome chastisement, but she took not the slightest notice of their threats, and returned again unconcernedly at her leisure.

A pair of Starlings took possession of a Sparrow's nest built in a rose tree trained against the wall of a farmhouse near Shenley, in Hertfordshire, last spring, and reared their young in it.

A year or two ago, whilst my brother was trying to photograph a Song Thrush in the act of feeding her young in Mull, he was astonished to see a Wren hop up and boldly pull a piece of moss out of the side of the Thrush's nest and fly off with it.

I have watched Rooks steal sticks from each other's nests on several occasions, and once saw one endeavour to pilfer twigs from a Heron's nest close by her own, and receive a measure of well-deserved punishment for her dishonesty from the infuriated owner.

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Kestrel's eggs in a raven's old nest

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Whilst some birds are guilty of theft, others occasionally exhibit quite extravagant habits in regard to the materials with which they are building their nests; and I have often located the precise position of a Swallow's nest amongst the rafters of a high barn by a collection of feathers dropped, I have no doubt accidentally, to the floor. Ring-Ouzels, Blackbirds, and Song Thrushes occasionally drop quite a quantity of materials to the ground beneath their nests, but do not appear to trouble about picking them up again. In the course of my ornithological experiences I have known one or two cases of birds trying to build in impossible situations, and having their best efforts defied by the materials toppling over as soon as piled a certain height. I remember a place close beside a waterfall in a little Yorkshire ghyll where a Blackbird or Song Thrush attempts in vain nearly every year to build on an ideal but, unfortunately, all too narrow ledge of rock.

Occasionally a bird will build a new nest on the top of an old one belonging to the same species, and I have known this done even when the old one contained addled eggs. I once saw an old Thrush's nest which had been lined with fine grass and utilised by a none too industrious Blackbird. We have met with several disused nests belonging to the two last-named birds occupied by Harvest Mice, which had filled up the hollows in each with their own pretty little balls of grass.

Kestrel Hawks are extremely lazy birds when judged from a domestic point of view. They adopt the old nests of Ravens, Carrion Crows, Magpies, and Sparrow Hawks, soon foul them with their castings, and, when their young ones are hatched out, do not even trouble to remove the shells from which the tiny down-clad creatures have struggled.

The illustration above shows a Kestrel's eggs in a Raven's old nest which had been half toppled over by a heavy fall of snow the previous winter. Before laying her eggs, the adaptor had scratched the side of the structure out a little so as to create a hollow.