THE BULFINCH. 63 
have in the present chapter to compare to basket- 
makers, do not always manifest much dexterity, and, 
in some cases, make their nests very loosely, and 
in an ill-finished manner. The materials employed 
by the ingenuity of man in making baskets are very 
various; for though the greater number are made 
of osiers and other flexible twigs, some are con- 
structed of strips of wood, some of leaves, and oth- 
ers of rushes or reeds.. Even the least refined of 
savage nations are often dexterous in such manu- 
factures. Vaillant saw some baskets among the 
Gonaqua Hottentots of Southern Africa, worked 
with reeds in so delicate a manner, and of so close 
a texture, that they were used for carrying water, 
milk, and other liquids. 
Birds, however, make use of many more kinds of 
materials in forming their nest-baskets than is done, 
so far as we know, in our manufactures ; while they 
seldom, if ever, employ osiers as we do. Our most 
conspicuous and best-known basket-making birds, 
indeed, so far from always selecting flexible mate- 
rials, which we should deem indispensable, prefer 
brittle dead sticks at least for the outworks; which 
are, in fact, constructed at the commencement of 
the nest, much on the model of the platform-build- 
ers. The bulfinch lays a foundation of birch twigs, 
placed crosswise in the forks of the branches, pay- 
ing more attention to the security of the fabric than 
to its neatness. But when she gets into a spruce 
pine, finding that the flat branch itself is an excellent 
foundation, she uses a much smaller number of 
sticks. When she has reared a groundwork to 
her mind, she proceeds to collect a quantity of flex- 
ible fibrous roots, which she intertwines into a sort 
of basket-work, rather loose, and only sufficient to 
hold the eggs and young from rolling down. The 
inside is wholly lined with fine roots without any 
hair or feathers. 
