NESTS AND NESTLINGS. 39 



The wood thrushes build their thatched cot- 

 tages in the saplings that grow in the woods, 

 often by the side of a winding path or wagon 

 road, while the brown thrasher selects a thicket 

 of bushes, a brush heap, or even the ground, for 

 a building site. Catbirds like a bush ; towhee 

 buntings choose mother earth, that being a sub- 

 stantial foundation, although they sometimes 

 prefer a thick bush like the catbird ; vesper 

 sparrows, black - throated buntings, meadow 

 larks, and bobolinks conceal their nests in the 

 grass or clover of fields ; orchard and Baltimore 

 orioles hang their hammocks on a swaying 

 branch, sometimes quite high in a tree, and 

 sometimes within arm's reach from the ground ; 

 for the nests of bluebirds, nuthatches, and chick- 

 adees you must look into the natural cavities or 

 deserted woodpecker holes of trees and stumps ; 

 bank swallows and kingfishers burrow in the 

 high banks along the streams ; and woodpeck- 

 ers, which are the carpenters among birds, chisel 

 out holes in dead tree trunks or branches. 



But it would take too long to go through 

 the whole list. The best way to know these 

 things thoroughly is to study them for your- 

 selves, so that you will seldom look in the wrong 

 place for a certain species of bird's nest. Be- 

 cause the meadow lark often sits on the top of 



