Identifier: birditsformfunct07beeb (find matches)
Title: The bird, its form and function
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Beebe, William, 1877-1962
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: New York : Henry Holt
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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e whitestof eggs, but here it is the nest which is protected,—fash-ioned of dull-hued plant-down, with beams and raftersof cobweb, covered outside in our Eastern species withlichens exactly like those which are growing upon thelimb to which the tiny air-castle is attached. The nestsof vireos, also, are much like their surroundings. Herons and egrets, pelicans, cormorants, storks,swans and geese, all lay white or whitish eggs in opennests; but obviously these birds require little protection, allbeing able to defend themselves with beak or wing. Someof them nest, too, in large colonies, adding the advantageof numbers. The constant need of vigilance in protect-ing eggs thus exposed is at once evident when mankind—that disturber of Nature for whose intrusion she seemsnever prepared—comes upon the scene. If we make ourway into the heart of a Florida rookery of herons, ibises,or cormorants, many of the birds will be frightened fromtheir nests and the Fish Crows take instant advantage,
Text Appearing After Image:
45° The Bird swooping down one after another upon the nests andeach impaling an egg upon its beak and flying off with it.They would never dare such open villainy were the heronsundisturbed.

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