HOW I HELPED BUILD A NEST. 179 



in the tree looking among the leaves ; in passing 

 she swung a moment on a strap hanging from a 

 branch ; then flew down among the weeds, back 

 up in the tree again ; and so back and forth, over 

 and over, her bill getting fuller and fuller. 



I was glad to save her work, and interested to 

 see how far she would accept my help. Once 

 when I blocked the entrance with feathers and 

 horsehair she stopped, and, though her bill was 

 full, picked up the packet and flew out on a 

 branch with it. Was she going to throw away my 

 present? For a moment my faith in her was 

 shaken. Perhaps her mate had been warning her 

 to beware of me. She did drop the mat of horse- 

 hair — what did such a dainty Quaker lady as 

 she want of horsehair ? — but she kept tight hold 

 of one of the feathers, although it was almost as 

 big as she was, and flew back quickly to the nest 

 with it. 



This performance proved one point. She would 

 not take everything that was brought to her. She 

 preferred to hunt for her own materials rather 

 than use what she did not like. Now the ques- 

 tion was, what did she like ? 



My next experiment was with some lamp wick 

 to which I had tied bits of cotton. The titmouse 

 took the cotton and would have taken the wicking, 

 I think, if it had not been fastened in too tight 

 for her. After that I tried tying bits of cotton 

 to strings, and letting them dangle before the 



