| Show BIRDS BUILD incubators marvelous intelligence shown by tin tho mound builders in malaya some birds even depart from the tha custom of their class and build incubators in order to hatch their eggs without the trouble of brooding the mound huil builders ders deposit their eggs in a huge pile composed ot of dirt dead leaves dry sticks and other debris of the woods seeing one tor for the first time in a malayan forest the traveler takes it tor for a mere heap of 0 rubbish and is surprised when his bis native guide proceeds to burrow into it in quest of eggs but when the searcher after removing the top layers uncovers a clutch of eggs or a lively little chick fully feathered and able to ly fly the secret is out the brush brushwood Nood pile must surely be an incubator cu bator these birds have surely bull ded better belter than they knew it Is easy for us to see that the mound acts like a gardeners hotbed the slow fermentation ot of the vegetable rubbish heats it from within the tropical sun from without the climate of 0 their habitat is equable the difference between the night and day temperatures is email the evaporation vapor oration atlon that follows a heavy fall of 0 rain reduces the temperature considerably even lc in the tropics but the birds lay only in the dry season the mound Is loosely put together thus air Is admitted to ventilate the eggs and light enough to put the newly born chicken on the tha track ot of the outside world the mound is in fact an incubator in the rough practically adapted to the needs of 0 birds living in a warm climate |
