THE OSPREY. 



35 



When we compare countries, in which 

 animal life is held sacred throug-h relig-- 

 ious belief with those where, throug-h 

 misinterpretation of the Bible, destruc- 

 tion is sanctioned, we find g-reat differ- 

 ences. There the birds enjoy the esteem 

 and love of the people and repay it 

 throug-h confidences and attachment. 



Here birds become fewer and wilder 

 every year. Man, in whom they should 

 see their best friend and protector, is 

 shunned as their g-reatest enemy. Ordi- 

 nary laws cannot protect the birds, and 

 the work of extirpation will continue as 

 long- as superstition and prejudice find 

 nourishment in the brain of the unedu- 

 cated. 



The only hope is to be found in the 

 education of the children. Make them 

 acquainted with the wonderful works of 

 God's creation, and they will soon begin 

 to love them. The better they become 

 acquainted the better they will love them, 

 and the friendship once sprung- up be- 

 tween them, will be the best protector. 



Teach the children to look for God, 

 not only in the church and in heaven, 

 but everywhere. Open their e3'es and 

 they will find Him and love Him in all His 

 works; in the rocks upon which we stand, 

 in the plants which adorn the ground, in 

 the smallest not less than in the m(jst in- 

 tellig-ent of animals, in the clouds which 

 we see in the sky, and in the stars 

 beyond. 



The Nest of the Prairie Warbler, 



{Detidroica discolo?'. ) 



BY DR. K. W. SHUFELDT, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



IT has always been a matter of curiosi- 

 ty to me to know what Wilson had 

 g-otten a hold of when, in his account 

 of the Prairie Warbler, he wrote "The 

 nest of this species is of very neat and 

 delicate workmanship, being- pensile and 

 g-enerally being on the fork of a low bush 

 or thicket; it is formed outwardly of 

 g-reen moss, intermixed with rotton bits 

 of wood and caterpillar's silk; the inside 

 is lined with extremely fine fibers of 

 g-rape-vine bark; and the whole would 

 scarceh' weig-h a quarter of an ounce. 

 The eg-g-s are white, with a few brown 

 spots at the g-reat end." 



Admitting- that the nest of this species 

 is a neat and delicate little structure, not 

 a sing-le word of this description in any 

 other particular approaches the truth, 

 that is, so far as the nest is concerned. 

 What he says about the eg-g-s is correct 

 enoug-h, as is his description of the male 

 bird, and the habits of the species. But, 

 unless Dcndroica discolor made a very 

 different kind of nest ninety years ag-o 

 when Wilson wrote, it certainly does not 

 construct a "pensile" one in these times, 

 "being on the fork of a low bush or 

 thicket." Some of the small Vireos may, 

 but not the Prairie Warbler. Several 

 nests of this species were found by my 

 son and myself during- our collecting- 

 trips last spring-, in the neig-hborhood of 

 the city of Washing-ton, D. C. The}- are 



*See frontispiece. 



fond of building- in the low, second- 

 g-rowth timber, composed of Scrub-oak, 

 Chestnut, Dog--wood and similar trees. 

 On the 8th of last June (1896), a very 

 pretty specimen of the nest of this spe- 

 cies was discovered in the fork of a small 

 oak, not more than three feet above the 

 ground. It contained four eg-g-s, and 

 these hatched out in the course of the 

 next few days. At first, the birds are 

 not much bigg-er than young humming-- 

 birds, but they grow rapidly, and, at 

 about the time they were ready to quit 

 the the nest I made a photog-raph of 

 both, taking- it of natural size, and a 

 reproduction of this picture is herewith 

 submitted.* 



Upon examining- the structure of this 

 nest, I find it to be composed of the fol- 

 lowing- materials — inside it is somewhat 

 thickly lined with the very finest kinds 

 of g-rass, veg-etable fibers and the white 

 hair of some animal — the three being- 

 beautifully interwoven in such a way as 

 to ^ive a smooth and even surface. This 

 lining- is completely blended with the 

 outer structure of the nest, in which lat- 

 ter much of the same material is used, 

 but to this part of the structure the birds 

 had added bits of white string-, feathers, 

 rather coarser g-rasses, scraps of cotton 

 and tiny pieces of wool, and similar ma- 

 terials. The weaving- is extremely intri- 

 cate and close, and the nest below is built 



