CURIOUS NESTS

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14836, 29 November 1913, Page 8

CURIOUS NESTS

■ ' :'■'■■'■■ '. " 91 - ~ -•' .'■■/ ■■■■..■' The rabbits from one of our New Zeaiand warrens—meaning the .nearest riverbed —were" busily raiding a neighbouring crop, and presently it was decided .that "snares" would ' be ' the easiest way of checking their; industry, so several dozen were put ready, and left' in a heap near some high pine trees, where a'pair of magpies .were building a nest.' The snares were made in the morning, and when the rabbitcr came for them" in the afternoon, they .had strangely but surely' vanished, and straightway he accused all and sundry of annexing, his property without word or leave. The disappearance remained a mystery until a few. days .ago," when a gale deposited the magpie's vacated home tit the foot of '. their tree". . In ' the untidy structure I ?&und the snares, .every missing one of them, twisted and bent into,the lining of the'nest. I have heard of Dcople who seemed to be "set on but whether the young magpies were of a like nervous temperament or if they regarded the snares as a sort of comfortable spring mattress, history does not relate. Starlings will build almost anywhere, but a queer site for a nest' is the wooden box arrangement which encloses a hot-water tank at the back of a kitchen range. The tank is packed round with sawdust, but a space is left at the top and a broken board provides a convenient entrance for the hirds. The nest is built so that a fair half rests on the hot-water tank itself, and I imagine the hen bird must be quite free of any fear that her eggs will not be warm. With hot sunshine, falling directly upon the box, and nearly boiling water in the tank beneath the nest, it is Tather wonderful that any Dird can endure the circumstances of life; and in fact I think sho leaves the PSgs in the daytime and only sits on them at night, or to "show willfng" to her mate. . However, the place evidently is a favourite nesting site, and though we have discouraged the birds by taking a first clutch of half a dozen and a second of five eggs, fb ey are again in possession. A starling seems always in a hnrry, and if any matter of greater importance is in sight they have a careless habit of leaving an ejrg iust anywhere upon the open ground. Thus in addition "to the eleven aforesaid we have pickM up three eggs near the hot-wafer TPbx, ana no doubt they Belonged to the same bird-