THE AMERICAN ROBIN. 



223 



cup is not withdrawn from most familiar observation. Building preferably 

 in the major crotches of orchard or shade trees, the bird ordinarily selects 

 a site from five to fifteen feet up, but nests are sometimes found at fifty feet, 

 and again, on the ground. Wind* iw sills and beams of porches, barns, and out- 

 buildings are favorite places, and especially if the season is backward. Two 

 of the most unusual sites came under my observation during the season of 

 1903. One shown in the illustration was placed on the sleeper of a railroad 



AX UXUSUAI, NESTING SITE. 



bridge over which trains passed three times an hour. Another was made fast 

 among the drooping branches of a weeping willow near their tips, and at a 

 point where none of them were above a quarter of an inch in diameter. How 

 the bird contrived to lodge the foundation, and mould her characteristic mud- 

 cup in such a difficult situation. I cannot comprehend. 



Nothing could be more common than Robins' nests. In walking out 

 from Canal Dover, along the tow-path which Garfield's footprints have 

 made sacred, the writer, in company with Dr. Leander S. Keyser, counted 



