Nests

Nests are prepared for egg-laying, brooding, and nursing purposes. How widely they may vary according to surroundings, the skill of the builder, and the needs of the young is best illustrated by birds, which excel all other animals in the art of cradling. It is not always possible to distinguish between a nest and a home, as the same structure may serve both purposes, but it is interesting to notice that the latter seems sometimes to have been evolved out of the former, as in the case of bees, where the complex hive has grown round about a simple nest. Referring to special articles, and above all to BIRD, we shall simply mention, in illustration, the squirrel's large and lofty shelter, and the minute cradle of the harvest-mice among the reeds; the æsthetic honeymoon-bower of the bower-bird, and the beautiful hanging-nests of the weavers; the holes prepared by the alligator and some other reptiles; the beautiful grassy structure woven and glued together by the stickleback, and the seaweed nest of the black goby; and finally, the social nests of ants, bees, and wasps. See ANT, BEE, EDIBLE BIRDS'-NEST, FISH, &c.; J. G. Wood's Wonderful Nests (1887); and F. Houssay, Les Industries des Animaux (Paris, 1890).