78 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



The Art Faculty in Birds. 



That birds discriminate as to color 

 apart from fabric is obvious. No hu- 

 man artist ever proved more conclu- 

 sively his appreciation of masses and 

 combination of colors than the little 

 artists of the air. 



It would seem that soft grasses, of 

 whatever tone of coloring, might serve 

 any little bird mother in weaving her 

 cradle, where grasses were the favorite 

 material ; but the critical eye of the 

 little weaver selects an acceptable tone 

 and this alone satisfies her. If the 

 first strands of the nest are tawny, 

 or straw colored, so are the rest. If 

 she chooses a more serious and darker 

 hue, mark how the whole coincides 

 with the beginning. If brown be the 

 favorite color then the cradle is a 

 brown cradle and no mixture though 

 perhaps with some horsehair for lin- 

 ing, which does not interfere at all with 

 the external color scheme so closely 

 and deftly is it twined within. If the 

 superstructure is of twigs mark you 

 how the twigs must all be of a kind : there 

 is no mistake, no accepting anything 

 else which may be obtained more 

 easily ; the eye of the weaver must be 

 able to correctly discriminate between 

 colors — shades of coloring — when on 

 the hunt for twigs and grasses. If 

 grey is the accepted color scheme, note 

 how paper and flax, scraps of cotton 

 or wool, are blended with wasp spun 

 tissue ; there is nothing straw colored 

 or brown about it ; the whole structure 

 shoAvs one motive ; the whole selection 

 of material is directed toward an ideal 

 in grey. 



The wood peewee's cradles, coated 

 with cobwebs and lichens, are fabrics 

 of beauty in tones of coloring only an 

 idealist could frame. 



Observe nests woven of cotton and 

 shreds of hemp from untwisted rope. 

 What a mass of hemp is sometimes 

 required to build into shape such a 

 strong, soft nest ; it is hemp and cotton 

 twined in artistic companionship; there 

 are no discordant or varying colors. 

 The style of material once choosen is 

 clung to with persistency, no matter 

 what effort is required in obtaining 

 it. 



If moss is the decorative coat of the 

 structure, note the perfection of the 

 color combination ; and there are nests, 

 too, twined of twigs in shades of red, 

 dark and rich in color, that lead one to 

 wonder just where the little builders 

 located their building supply. 



Find an ovenbird's nest hidden in 

 the grass — that nest with its shelter- 

 ing dome — and think up, if you can, 

 any more clever color combination of 

 grasses and leaves than the structure 

 within which, though tides of rain 

 may sweep by, the little mother and 

 the baby brood are securely protected. 

 Observe how the drooping masses of 

 leaf stems, all of a color, are made 

 to fall over the opening, creating a 

 fairy-like bower. 



When a nest is to be bound to twigs 

 for support, observe the consideration 

 given to harmony in color as well as 

 in fabric. The wood fibre, lichens or 

 whatever be chosen for external 

 weaving, and decoration of the whole, 

 will extend up and w r ind around the 

 supporting twigs, forming a fitting 

 and decorative nest rim which no 

 human artist could ever hope to im- 

 prove upon. In this art the vireos 

 are experts, and indeed what could 

 be more captivating to the eye than 

 some of the fancies of these same little 

 builders whose work is art itself, and 

 whose cradles are sometimes strung 

 with atoms of paper banners that 

 chime in with wood fibre and grasses 

 as they flutter on threads of cobwebs. 

 There are birds who go beyond their 

 fellows in determination to develop 

 the ornamental. A little nest known 

 to the writer is twined with string and 

 edged with a row of mottled feathers 

 — a couple of dozen or more — that 

 stand up straight like a ruff on the 

 nest rim. Another is decorated on one 

 side with a sprig of white pine, with 

 all its array of needles, fastened on 

 tightly with a bit of dark string. One 

 where the beauty of leaves seems to 

 have been appreciated presents some- 

 thing of the appearance of a wreath of 

 brown in perfect unison with the color 

 scheme of the nest — a thing of beauty 

 no human hand could fashion to love- 

 lier outline. 



Perhaps the oddest fancy is that of 



