¶ Bird’s Nest As A Tool (1)
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Index Entry
Bird’s Nest As A Tool:
"…A bird alters environment by making a nest, and this is related to its ability to fly. If a bird had to gestate little birds in its womb, it would become so heavy that it would be unable to fly. So we find the bird developing the process of the nest and then issuing forth new life in the form of an egg encasing both the embryo and all the nutriment that is going to be necessary to develop the embryo until it hatches as a chick. There is only one thing to be added: a very discrete amount of heat has to be given to that egg to keep it going along so that the embryo will develop.
“In designing that nest birds demonstrate an interesting adjustment to the delicacy of the process. With a great many migrating birds, the males migrate north earlier than the females, and, from their flight advantage, pick areas of the trees where there is going to be the kind of food that that type of bird needs to live-- insects or worms or whatever it may be. The males come into the trees and pick positions where nests are going to go. We are familiar with soldiers standing in a tight line and then taking room on the line, spreading out until each man has adequate elbow room. The birds do this in an omni—”
