The Birds' Calendar 



of silkweed, low, etc., with a lining of liorsc- 

 hair, grass, and similar material. 



But the most ethereal affair of all, of gauzy 

 texture comporting with its dainty occupant, is 

 the humming - bird's home. Its framework is 

 soft down, such as grows on the stems of cer- 

 tain ferns, covered with lichens glued on with 

 the saliva of the bird, and the whole lined with 

 superlatively soft and downy substances like the 

 pappus of flying seeds. This elegant abode is 

 only three-quarters of an inch in its inner di- 

 ameter, yet amply large for the two tiny eggs 

 less than half an inch in length — *' love in a 

 cottage," indeed — and the casket with its pair 

 of germinant jewels and its airy fairy master 

 and mistress presents one of the rarest pictures 

 in nature. 



In contrast with such a delicate dream how 

 huge and ungainly is the dwelling of the bald 

 eagle, a bulky heap sometimes five feet in diarfi- 

 eter, and two or three feet thick, made of large 

 sticks often an inch thick, branches of seaweed, 

 and turf. But Nature is as masterly in a gigan- 

 tic stroke as in her gentlest touch, and shows 

 the same superb consistency in grouping the 

 majestic bird of prey with its inhospitable eyrie 

 on the rugged, lonely mountain-top, as when 



