32 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



nests are built higher in bushes and dwarf trees. I have 

 found them in hedges as high as eight feet from the 

 ground. 



Do the birds really profit by their unfortunate experi- 

 ences? Many of the birds that nest on the ground un- 

 dergo great misfortunes from the plow and the mower. 

 The prairie horned larks usually begin to nest in this 

 locality before the spring plowing has commenced, and 

 many homes of these birds are annually destroyed in the 

 breaking of the ground. Later the larks choose sites at 

 the bases of the young corn, and the cultivator comes 

 along and brings disaster to the new establishments. 

 Many broods of the prairie chicken are thus cut off in 

 their embryonic stage by the plow. The time of greatest 

 loss to the Dickcissels is when the clover is cut for the 

 first crop, the mower uncovering many a cozy and safely- 

 hidden home. When the time for cutting the clover is 

 at hand, however, if a new nest is to be made by a pair 

 of Dickcissels, they sometimes choose a retreat in the 

 drooping branches of an untrimmed hedge bordering a 

 field, and establish their new home on the horizontal, 

 over-arching boughs. Thus their habitation is secure 

 when the mower unroofs the homes of their neighbors. 

 These higher nests of Dickcissel are usually better speci- 

 mens of architecture than those on the ground. They 

 are more nearly spherical, and are generally well woven 

 and evenly rounded, since they are often in situations 

 where they are not held in shape by surrounding stems. 

 Some of these late structures are in form not unlike the 

 nests of the orchard oriole. 



The nest is made externally of coarse, dried weed 

 stems, corn husks, and strips of bark, having in most in- 

 stances a middle wall of finer grass stems. It is lined 

 with fine dried grass, sometimes with rootlets and horse- 

 hair. I have found specimens of which the entire ex- 

 ternal layer was composed of peppergrass. The nest is 

 comparatively large, but is generally compact, and hence 

 does not readily fall apart. The cavity averages more 

 than two inches across its top, and is two inches deep. 

 The nest is commonly well screened from view by stems 

 and foliage, and- is oftener passed than seen by untrained 



