260 FRANCIS H. HERRICK 



they take from their immediate environment whatever they 

 can use in adaptation to their needs and methods of work, 

 while on the other they will go long distances in search of what 

 they need or prefer, such as soft mud, spiders' silk, hair, fine 

 vegetable substances, or even the cast skins of snakes, yet many 

 in this case are often quick to adapt materials nearer at hand 

 to their immediate use. The endless variations to be noticed 

 in such particulars, while the source of much popular interest, 

 are usually not important, because of their inconstancy. While 

 the external form and appearance of the nest may vary con- 

 siderably under such circumstances, it is safe to say that the 

 building materials, however bizarre or incorrigible, receive the 

 same kind of treatment, and that the inner wall is not essentially 

 changed. Accordingly any marked \-ariations in nests of this 

 sort are due to accident, so far as their builders are concerned, 

 or to the environment, rather than to any important change 

 of instinct or habit. 



The rule of coarser materials first and finer or more pliable 

 last is seldom departed from, especially in all such as build an 

 increment nest, of the upright standing form, and neatly mold 

 an inner wall, though in some cases, to be sure, the nest is very 

 uniform throughout, whether exceedingly soft as in the ruby 

 throat (fig. 1 8), the goldfinch and yellow warbler, or when 

 made entirely of the culms of grasses or of coarser twigs. Yet 

 I have even found the soft nestling down feathers of some wild 

 bird to enter more completely into the lining of the hummer's 

 nest than in any part of its outer walls. 



If we were to confine our attention to certain species of birds 

 such as the osprey {Pandion haliaetus carolinensis) , and hooded 

 crow (Corvus comix) we should have to admit that no junk 

 dealer could present a more motley array of articles drawn 

 from every kingdom of nature as well as from the arts and 

 devices of man than the nests of these birds on occasion afford.^" 

 An old broom and rake, a rag doll and toy sail boat, an old 

 door mat, shoe brush and feather duster, egg-strings of the 

 common conch, and coils of rope twenty feet long, tin cans as 

 well as sea shells, bright stones, and the bleached bones of cattle, 

 not to speak of a new hat blown from the head of an unfor- 



^"The following notes are drawn from " Breeding Habits of the Fish Hawk on 

 Plum Island, New York," by Charles Glover Allen. See The Auk. New York, 

 1892, vol. ix, p. 313-321. 



