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Birds of entirely different species sometimes share the same nest, and yet live and go about their business in perfect amity.
A few years ago I watched a pair of Rooks and a pair of House Sparrows, close to the Priory Road, Hornsey, feeding their young at the same time and at the same nest. The latter birds occupied the basement, having taken up their quarters amongst the sticks forming the foundation of the Rooks' nest.
In 1895 a pair of Starlings made their home and successfully reared their young amongst the sticks forming the Ospreys' eyrie shown in our illustration.
The picture was obtained in the Highlands of Scotland during a scorching hot day in the droughty summer of 1896, and represents the nest and adult birds of one of the two or three pairs of Ospreys now said to breed in the British Isles.
Whilst my brother was preparing to make a study of the eyrie and its builders perched on the dead tree tops from an adjoining island, the female, as if afraid the hot sunshine would do some harm to her exposed eggs, plunged headlong into the loch, and, rising, shook her dripping wings over them, after which she quietly resumed her favourite perch.
As a gratifying indication of the increasing interest taken in natural history by the people at large, hardly a week passes in the springtime without the newspapers recording a curious nesting-place chosen by some bird. Robin Redbreasts naturally come in for a large share of journalistic attention, and I am constantly having cuttings sent me by friends who know I study the subject.
Indeed, the same paragraph will often come from different quarters at the same time.
Pair of ospreys and their nest
We have ourselves met with a Robin's nest in an old coffee-pot tossed by some careless hand into a garden hedge, in an old watering-can lying upon its side on a rubbish heap, in the hub of a cart-wheel leaning against a wall, and amongst the woodwork beneath a tumbril standing in a shed, and give herewith a combination of photographs of them as objects of curiosity. It is gratifying to be able to state that in each case the parent birds succeeded in rearing and carrying off their young ones in safety. Strangely enough, a Pied Wagtail had also built her nest in the framework of the tumbril above mentioned, on the same side as the Robin, but below the axletree. Both birds had taken advantage of an extra piece of timber which had been nailed on to strengthen the framework of the vehicle.
We have seen the nests of various members of the Tit family inside letter-boxes, street lamps, disused pumps, and even within the narrow limits afforded by the interior of the knife-box of a mowing machine.
A gentleman, who was going abroad big game shooting some years ago, like a prudent sportsman, tested the capabilities of his elephant gun and its explosive bullets on a brick garden wall prior to starting. The following spring a Spotted Flycatcher discovered that the penetrative force and destructive powers of one of the little projectiles had been sufficient to create an eligible site for a small bird's nest, and promptly built her own in the hole made by it.
Robins' nests in odd situations
The unwearying patience and devotion of birds whilst engaged in sitting upon their eggs or tending their young has often struck me as being really wonderful. I have passed some several times a day for days together, and found them sitting on every occasion in exactly the same positions. However, such is by no means always the case, as birds nesting in fairly open situations frequently alter their positions - a fact due, no doubt, in many cases to the shifting of the wind, as they dislike to sit with their tails to it.
Flycatcher's nest in bullet-hole
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