LARGE HOUSES FOR SMALL TENANTS.

In Australia there is a bird—the Megapodius—that builds for its family an enormous dwelling. It is not a large bird, being about the size of our partridge, but it seems to have very lofty ideas. If a man built a house in the same proportion to his size, as that of this bird is to its size, his house would be twice as large as the Great Pyramid of Egypt. It would be very inconvenient to have such residences as these, and they would be very difficult to keep clean, to say nothing of the great expense of building them. A man would have to call in the aid of hundreds of workmen, and pay them well, and years would be required to complete such a mansion, and a great many different instruments would be called into use. Whereas two of these birds will build their huge dwelling in a few weeks, with no tools but their own beaks and claws, and with no expense whatever.

The Megapodius does not believe in gay clothes, and is always dressed in plain and sombre brown. It is an intelligent, patient, industrious, persevering little creature, as you will see from the way it constructs its nest.

It begins by gathering together a mass of leaves, branches, and plants. With these it spreads out on the ground, in the place it has selected for its nest, a thick bed of a circular form. Upon this it heaps up earth and stones, and packs them well together, continuing to labor perseveringly until it raises a mound from eight to fourteen feet high. Some of these mounds measure a hundred and fifty feet round the base, and as much as twenty-four feet up the slope. A circular opening is left in the center of this mound, and extends from the top to the ground.

NEST OF THE MEGAPODIUS.

In this opening herbs and leaves are heaped up; and, on this theMegapodius places its eggs, eight in number, arranged in a circle, at equal distances from each other, with the points downward.

After the female has performed this task of arranging the eggs, both of the parent birds leave the nest, for they are of no use whatever to the young birds after they are hatched. So you see this great labor, in which they have shown so much skill is not for themselves, but for their children.

The leaves and herbs, enclosed in this great mass of compact earth, become so heated after a time that fermentation commences, and this heat hatches the eggs. How does the Megapodius know this? And how does it know what plants will produce poisonous vapors, so that it never brings these to its nest?

Most birds, you know, are born naked, or covered with a soft down, and they have to be fed for several weeks until their feathers grow, and they can be taught to fly. But the young Megapodius, we are told by travelers, comes out of its shell fully provided with feathers. They say that it throws off the hot leaves that surround it, and mounts to the top of the mound, looks about for a few minutes, flaps its wings, and then, at once, soars up in the air, and comes back to its nest no more. If this be true, it knows where to look for food, and how to take care of itself as soon as it is born.

Another Australian bird, the Telegalla, also builds a large nest, though, by no means equal in size to that of the Megapodius. The bird is larger, too. It is about the size of a turkey, and, like that fowl, carries itself with quite an important air. It works in the grassy fields. It cuts down grass by the handful; or rather, I should say, by the clawful. For, after it has gathered a small bunch of grass, it grasps it with one claw, and hops proudly along on the other claw to the spot it has chosen for its nest.

TELEGALLAS MAKING THEIR NESTS.

The male and female bird work for a long time in this way, and make a vast number of journeys to and fro, always bearing to thenest a little bundle of grass. They heap this up, as haymakers build up their haycocks. In fact a Telegalla’s nest is not unlike a haycock, and is about the size of one.

Having reared up their nest as high as they think proper, the female carefully places her eggs in the center; and then, with her mate, takes her departure. They do not trouble their minds any more about either eggs or nest. They know, in some mysterious way, that the grass they have piled up will dry, when exposed to the sun, and that it will be heated by this process. And they know that this heat will hatch the eggs; and that the young birds will be able to take care of themselves as soon as they issue from the shell. So, why should they worry themselves about the matter?

In the Cape of Good Hope, Southern Africa, there are birds, not larger than our sparrows, that build cities to live in. They belong to the family of Grossbeaks, and these are called Social Grossbeaks, because they live in communities. Hundreds of birds will unite in building an immense nest, high up the trunk of some tree. They work away with twigs, and sticks, and grass, and feathers, and moss. And, when the structure is completed, it looks at a little distance as if men had built some great timber work around the tree trunk. It is in reality a city, consisting of rows of single nests, each one inhabited by a pair of birds.

There they lay their eggs, and hatch them, and raise their children, and teach them how to fly, and to get their living. Hundreds of families live thus peaceably together, and have a good time helping and visiting each other. Policemen do not seem to be necessary in these cities, where each bird behaves just as well as he knows how.

NESTS OF SOCIAL GROSSBEAKS.

No doubt, after their hard work is done, they have fine fun at their parties, and merry-makings. Whether they have “town meetings,” and public lectures, and parades, I know not. Private lectures, andconcerts, I am sure they must have! And the liveliest jigs and waltzes among the branches of the trees!

A traveler in Africa once brought one of these nests away with him. It contained 340 little nests. So it had been inhabited by 340 pairs of birds, and their families. It was so heavy that several men were necessary to remove it from the tree; and it was taken away in a wagon.

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