Here
the eggs are deposited, and are carefully covered with more decaying
vegetation when the bird desires to be absent from the nest.

_Variation in Families._--Sometimes there is wide variety in the
character of the nests of different species classified as belonging to
the same family. The Flycatcher group is a good example of this fact.
Here we have as one member of the family the Kingbird, that makes a
heavy bulky nest often on one of the upper, outermost limbs of an apple
tree. The Wood Pewee's nest is a frail, shallow excuse for a nest,
resting securely on a horizontal limb of some well-grown tree. Then
there is the Phoebe, that plasters its cup-shaped mass of nesting
material with mud, thus securing it to a rafter or other projection
beneath a bridge, outbuilding, or porch roof. Still farther away from
the typical Flycatcher's {39} nest is that made by a perfectly regular
member of the family, the Great-crested Flycatcher. The straw and
other substances it collects as a bed for its eggs and young is carried
into some hollow tree, old Woodpecker hole, or nesting box. Often a
cast-off skin of a snake is used, and sometimes the end is permitted to
hang out of the hole--a sort of "scare-crow," perhaps, intended for the
notice of annoying neighbours.

[Illustration: A male plumbous gnatcatcher feeding young]

_Meagre Nests._--Heretofore, mention has been made only of the nests of
birds built with much labour and usually constructed in trees or
bushes. A very large number of species, however, lay their eggs on the
ground with little or no attempt to gather around or beneath them any
special nesting material. The Killdeer's eggs are simply deposited in
a slight hole scratched in the earth, usually in an open field or on a
rocky hillside. The only lining is a few grass blades or smooth
pebbles. To protect them from enemies the birds depend much upon the
peculiar marking of the eggs, which makes them look like the {40}
ground on which they lie, and this seems to be a sufficient safeguard
for the eggs and offspring of the species. The Nighthawk lays her two
eggs on the bare ground in a field or open woods; and the
Whip-poor-will's nest is on the fallen leaves of a thicket at any spot
which the bird happens to select.

The Gulls so common along our coast and about the larger lakes make
substantial nests, as a rule--but not always. I have found them on the
islands along the coast of Maine containing not a doz