NESTING HABITS OF BIRDS. 



An interesting feature of bird life is their nesting 

 habits. The general plan characterizing each species is 

 often so modified by place and circumstance, that in 

 many instances the plan seems to be abandoned and a 

 new one substituted. Some of the swallows that for- 

 merly nested almost exclusively in caves and in hollow 

 trunks of trees, now build in chimneys, or in colonies 

 \mder the eaves of barns or other out-buildings. As 

 the country grows older and the hollow stumps disap- 

 pear from meadows and pasture fields, the blue birds 

 are obliged to use other hollow places, sometimes knot 

 holes in houses and barns, and when unmolested by 

 sparrows they will often come and build in the httle 

 bird houses attached to trees and poles near our dwell- 

 ings. Many of the warblers have left the deep forests 

 and now come to the orchards, lawns and gardens to 

 rear their young ; the blue jays also now seek the trees 

 near the habitations of men ; some of the 11 y catchers 

 more frequently nest in sheds or under bridges than, as 

 formerly, on rocks. 



The finches (FringillidGe) seldoin place the nest above 

 a dozen feet from the earth, though a majority of the 

 family nest on the ground. The tree and chipping 



