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olume XVII l?f arcl?-April, 191? Number' 2 ADAPTABILITY IN THE CHOICE OF NESTING SITES OF SOME WIDELY SPREAD BIRDS By CLARENCE HAMILTON KENNEDY ?VITH THREE DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR NE OF the most interesting things I have had the pleasure of observing while residing in the treeless intermountain region of the West, was the adaptability in manner of nesting of various' kinds of birds. Birds which in the mesophytic Mississippi Valley were seldom known to nest except in trees, nested in the western desert almost wherever they could get a safe site. Robins on this frontier of their habitat nested in vines by the house door or even on rafters in the barns. Doves nested on the ground, while Flickers nested in telephone poles, and there is hardly a desert home but shows in its perforated gables the Flicker's attempts to nest. Indeed it is reported that in central Oregon, in the region of Vale, Flickers nest even in holes in the banks as do Kingfishers. It is interesting to note in passing that these few birds, which have such plastic habits, are also those which are most widely spread across the conti- nent. It is also interesting to note that each of these birds in its own group has a rather wide range of diet, another point of elasticity permitting it to out- range its immediate relations. These are species which have but little sensi- tiveness toward the encroachments of man. In fact, in the West the Doves, Robins, and Flickers, especially in the irrigated 'sections, have cast their lot with man in the newly conquered wastes and have given their assistance in the conflict for the mastery of those weed and insect pests which have always threatened agriculture. Perhaps it is imagination, but I have many times felt, as I have watched these semi-domestic species in their tireless work about barnyards and orchards, that they had a more plastic mentality than those of their relatives which depend on shyness, concealment, and speed ?o protect