THE CAT-BIRD. 21 



liberation. The site selected is usually a brier, a thorn-apple, 

 or a bush in the centre of a thicket or hedge, seldom far from 

 a settlement. "The injudiciousness of the selection is not 

 always foreseen, and a nest is often nearly completed befoi-e the 

 mistake is discovered. In this predicament, instead of 'making 

 the best of a bad bargain,' the birds totally ignore the site for 

 another better suited to their taste." The situation finally de- 

 cided upon, both birds work diligently during the cooler hours 

 of the morning and evening for five or six days in the construc- 

 tion of then- domicile. "When a suitable article has been 

 found," says Thomas Gentry, "the bird does not fly immedi- 

 ately to the nest and adjust the piece, but indulges in short 

 flights from one object to an adjoining one, carefully surve3-ing 

 the premises all the while, until within a few paces of the nest, 

 when she rapidly flies thither, and having satisfactorily adjusted 

 it goes off" in quest of other materials." The pair do not seem 

 to be annoyed by the presence of human witnesses to their work. 

 A platform of tw^igs and slender sticks or weeds is usually 

 first built, on which rests the body of the nest. The main struc- 

 ture is composed of finer twigs, strips of bark, leaves, straws, 

 pine-needles, shavings, and other stuff", more or less firmly put 

 together. The inside measures about 31-2 inches in diameter, 

 and as many in depth, and is closely lined with black fibrous 

 roots, and sometimes with fine dry grass, particularly if built 

 near the seashore. Usually compact, this nest is sometimes 

 very bulky, and entangled among the branches of the bush in 

 which it rests. One which I found near Norwich, Conn., was 

 hung between two small bushes in such a way that it had no 

 more direct support than that which a slender spray from each 

 bush afforded ; but the voluminous inass of crooked sticks 

 underneath it offered so many hooked ends and projections 

 that the nest was very secure. Another is described as 

 carelessly made, and bearing a close resemblance to the nest 

 of the Maryland yellow-throat, and was presumed to be the 

 work of young or indolent birds. A third deviation, on the 

 cpntrary, showed superiority of workmanship. The outside 

 of this cosy and beautiful nest was "composed of wool, raw 

 cotton, strings, fragments of lamp wick, a slight intermixture 



