Most birds, you know, are born naked, or covered with a soft down, and they have to be fed for several weeks until their feathers grow, and they can be taught to fly. But the young Megapodius, we are told by travelers, comes out of its shell fully provided with feathers. They say that it throws off the hot leaves that surround it, and mounts to the top of the mound, looks about for a few minutes, flaps its wings, and then, at once, soars up in the air, and comes back to its nest no more. If this be true, it knows where to look for food, and how to take care of itself as soon as it is born. Another Australian bird, the Telegalla, also builds a large nest, though, by no means equal in size to that of the Megapodius. The bird is larger, too. It is about the size of a turkey, and, like that fowl, carries itself with quite an important air. It works in the grassy fields. It cuts down grass by the handful; or rather, I should say, by the clawful. For, after it has gathered a small bunch of grass, it grasps it with one claw, and hops proudly along on the other claw to the spot it has chosen for its nest. [Illustration: TELEGALLAS MAKING THEIR NESTS.] The male and female bird work for a long time in this way, and make a vast number of journeys to and fro, always bearing to the nest a little bundle of grass. They heap this up, as haymakers build up their haycocks. In fact a Telegalla’s nest is not unlike a haycock, and is about the size of one. Having reared up their nest as high as they think proper, the female carefully places her eggs in the center; and then, with her mate, takes her departure. They do not trouble their minds any more about either eggs or nest. They know, in some mysterious way, that the grass they have piled up will dry, when exposed to the sun, and that it will be heated by this process. And they know that this heat will hatch the eggs; and that the young birds will be able to take care of themselves as soon as they issue from the shell. So, why should they worry themselves about the matter? In the Cape of Good Hope, Southern Africa, there are birds, not larger than our sparrows, that build cities to live in. They belong to the family of Grossbeaks, and these are called Social Grossbeaks, because they live in communities. Hundreds of birds will unite in building an immense nest, high up the trunk of some tree. They work away with twigs, and sticks, and grass, and feathers, and moss. And, when the structure is completed, it looks at a little distance as if men had built some great timber work around the tree trunk. It is in reality a city, consisting of rows of single nests, each one inhabited by a pair of birds.