BECOMING AN ILLUSTRATOR 43 



to sleep on the back of rny chair when I was sewing. 

 lie stuck his sharp, polished bill into almost every 

 affair of my day. Very early in his career he began 

 picking up any bit of thread or wrapping cord he 

 could find in the conservatory or when he flew 

 through the rooms, carrying these to his cage and 

 spending hours weaving them back and forth 

 between the wires. When I saw how busily he 

 worked at this and how much pleasure he seemed 

 to get from it I gave him lengths of brightly col- 

 oured woolen yarn and string to see what he would 

 do with them. 



One of the biggest fallacies ever published by 

 any nature writer is the statement that male song 

 birds do not work in the building of nests. The 

 general rule is that they carry material assiduously, 

 frequently entering the nest in the course of con- 

 struction to try to help with the building. This, 

 the female almost always resents. I have watched 

 the construction of a number of oriole nests from 

 start to finish. With one in particular I spent 

 three full days, so I know that half of the weav- 

 ing and more than half of the material carrying 

 was the work of the male. My oriole was par- 

 ticularly expert in weaving. One morning I cut 

 pieces of loosely twisted coarse, stiff twine into 

 lengths, pulling it apart and loosely rolling it 

 into a ball about the size of a pint cup, and gave 

 it to him to play with. He immediately stuck his 

 head into the centre of the ball, worked out a 



