WIRE FOR BIRDS' NESTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 285, 13 September 1933, Page 8

WIRE FOR BIRDS' NESTS

CROWS IN SOUTH AFRICA USE OF ELECTRIC PYLONS Do birds show intelligence in making their nests, or act only by instinct? This question, which has long been debated by naturalists, is raised again Jjy a report from South Africa that the pied crow has taken to using wire as its nesting material and to building its nests on electric pylons. Copper, galvanised iron, and even barbed wire, it is stated, are used, and the wire framework which supports the nest proper may be nearly two feet across. _ln one case the total weight of the nest was 201 b. "Wire is about the only thing which could have"laeen used to attach the nest firmly," it is pointed out by MiErnest "Warren, of the Natal Museum, who records the discovery of such nests in a recent current issue of "Nature." He added: "The birds had wonderful intelligence to make use of this artificial material. The mere manipulation of heavy gauge wire by a bird is a surprising'feat of strength." Mr Warren also records that similar wire nests are now to be found in the Orange Free State, where the recent extension of railway electrification has provided, from the birds' point of view, a substitute for the shortage of trees. Commenting on these facts to a representative of the "Morning Post," the Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, secretary of the International Ornithological Congress, which is to be held'at Oxford 1 next summer, recalled an isolated instance of herons which built a nest entirely of fencing wire, in Nottinghamshire, a generation ago. "Other birds have been known to make use of! odd scraps of wire," Mr Jourdain added. "It looks like the use of intelligence, but one must not put it higher than making use of the nearest nesting material. It is the same sort of adaptability as that shown by a tit-mouse nesting, say, in a pillarbox when man has reduced the supply of normal nesting places."