276 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



The male catbird keeps near his mate after their 

 union and carries twigs, fine roots, leaves, and 

 grass for their nest. 



Both brown thrashers carry coarse sticks for the 

 base and finer material for the lining of their nest, 

 and the female builds in rare instances on the 

 ground, always very low in brush heaps or thorn 

 trees. 



One spring, I watched almost the entire con- 

 struction of the nest of a wood thrush. When I 

 found the location the birds had worked only a short 

 time. Clay had been spread over the brandl- 

 ing of two stout limbs on a scrub elm bush and 

 on it was laid a handful of fine roots, thready 

 and fibrous. In collecting abandoned nests, I 

 find clay to be very common, especially among the 

 turdidae family. The following day, the female 

 mounted this heap, pressed down, worked out a 

 hollow in the middle, shaped it to her breast, and 

 interwove loose ends. The male brought her a 

 quantity of fine sticks and twigs which she worked 

 in around the base. Often she left the nest and 

 flew for some particular bit of material she wanted. 

 The third day she daubed the inside with clay, 

 lined it with dry grass blades, and deposited the 

 first egg. The building of this nest required three 

 days' work on the part of both birds, from nine in 

 the morning until three in the afternoon. Sub- 

 stituting different material used by different 

 species, the history of the making of this nest is 



