THE SUMMER YELLOWBIED. H? 



in the hempen fibres to be torn fi-om silk-weed and various other 

 wild plants, with a dozen other twinable materials. These are all 

 woven and curled together, the loose ends being well tucked in until 

 there is held secure in the crotch of a bush or tree, usually low 

 down, a neat, white, flaxen cup, ready to be adorned and furnished. 

 If you should take the nest out, it would hold its shape well 

 enough, and though you might easily crush it in your fingers, upon 

 being released it would spring well back to its first forni. 



Softness and warmth for the interior are obtained by searching for 

 " the down of willows, the nankeen wool of the Virginian cotton- 

 grass, the down of fern-stalks, the hair from the downy seeds 

 of the button-wood {Platamis), or the pappus of compound 

 flowers." Over this soft bedding is laid a sheet, as it were, of a 

 few hairs, threads of lint or slender grasses, to make a smooth 

 surface. Now and then, you will find little strength of framework, 

 the builders seeming to have been so captivated by the delicious 

 softness of the down as to use it almost exclusively. Thus I once 

 took a nest in Michigan made wholly of orange fern-down ; it 

 was as light and fluffy as a bunch of cotton, and when removed 

 from its perch had little greater consistency. 



One of the too few really entertaining chapters in the late Dr. 

 T. M. Brewer's writings is devoted to this warbler, and I quote a 

 pertinent paragraph. 



A pair of these birds, in 1836, built their nest under a parlor window in 

 Roxbury, where all their operations could be closely watched. When discov- 

 ered, only the framework, the fastening to the supporting twigs, had been 

 erected. The work of completion was simple and rapid. The female was the 

 chief builder, taking her position in the centre of the nest, and arranging the 

 materials in their places as her mate brought them to her. Occasionally, with 

 outstretched wings and expanded tail, she would whirl herself round, giving to 

 the soft and yielding materials their hemispherical form. At intervals she 

 arrested her revolutions to stop and regulate with her bill some unyielding 

 portion. When her mate was dilatory she made brief excursions and collected 

 material for herself, and when the materials brought her were deemed unsuit- 

 able, they were rejected in a most summary and amusing manner. The im- 

 portant part of the tail-feathers in shaping the nest and placing the materials 

 in position was a striking feature in this interesting performance. The greater 

 portion of the nest was thus constructed in a single day. 



