Then I asked him what he thought they did with the eggs
while a new nest was being prepared. He didn't know; neither do I to
this day. A specimen of the many puzzling problems presented to the
naturalist.
We soon found many more nests belonging to birds that were not half so
suspicious. The handsome and notorious blue jay plunders the nests of
other birds and of course he could not trust us. Almost all the
others--brown thrushes, bluebirds, song sparrows, kingbirds,
hen-hawks, nighthawks, whip-poor-wills, woodpeckers, etc.--simply
tried to avoid being seen, to draw or drive us away, or paid no
attention to us.
We used to wonder how the woodpeckers could bore holes so perfectly
round, true mathematical circles. We ourselves could not have done it
even with gouges and chisels. We loved to watch them feeding their
young, and wondered how they could glean food enough for so many
clamorous, hungry, unsatisfiable babies, and how they managed to give
each one its share; for after the young grew strong, one would get
his head out of the door-hole and try to hold possession of it to meet
the food-laden parents.
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