HOW THE BIRDS KNOW 



317 



tion, resulting from what we should call "original 

 thought and plan" in the case of a human, since 

 the bird to my knowledge had no precedent. If 

 orioles the world over have been building with 

 windows, and tying slip knots scientists and natu- 

 ral historians have forgotten to mention it. 



I reproduced two views of this nest in a book of 

 mine, "Friends in Feathers," 

 published in 1917. Ever 

 since, I have hunted for 

 oriole nests, hoping to find 

 other birds in rebellion 

 against accepted form, but 

 with no success until the 

 spring of 1919, while I was 

 at work on this book, one of 

 my field men brought me 

 the nest here reproduced. This bird had attempted 

 a window and failed. She made it too small and 

 too high. Lacking the ingenuity and brain power 

 of the other bird, yet having the window idea in her 

 head, she compromised by shortening the hammock, 

 in which she swung her nest, until raised by the di- 

 ameter of her eggs, she could brood and look from the 

 top of the nest. Truly, the old bird lover was right 

 when he said in passing: "The birds improve." 



Quite as remarkable as the oriole nests with 

 windows is a double vireo nest, found and photo- 

 graphed by Professor Lynds Jones, ornithologist 

 of Oberlin College, reproduced in Dawson's "Birds 



