PROCREANT CRADLES' 



109 



strength coming from the reeds at the sides ; and they are 

 therefore twisted or woven to the reeds, just as the chaf- 

 finches' nests are felted from a solid foundation. Long 

 threads from the reeds' own plumes of the previous year are 

 the usual materials used by the reed-warblers for knitting the 

 stems together ; but they 

 are very glad to use 

 threads of cotton when 

 they can find them, and ^^ 

 it would evidently be a 

 great advantage to them 

 to be able to spin threads 

 for themselves. This, 

 however, no bird can do ; 

 the preparation of material 

 in this way involves more 

 far-sightedness than they 

 are capable of, even if they 

 could find any method of 

 twisting thread without 

 the human opposable 

 thumb. The even growth 

 and elastic substance of 

 the reeds allows the wind 

 to swing them all together 

 without tearing the nest apart, as is sometimes the fate of a 

 chaffinch's nest when it is attached to stems of varying 

 degrees of resistance. Deep and almost tubular in shape, 

 the reed-warbler's nest never spills its eggs as it leans to the 

 pressure of the wind. Sedge-warblers' nests are sometimes 

 attached in a similar though rougher manner to blades of 

 sedge and flag ; and marsh-warblers hang their nests in 

 much the reed-warbler's way to stems of osier and meadow- 



REED-WARBLER AND NEST 



