158 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 



When horse han^ is to be found, the httle chipping 

 bird {Sjpizella socialis) builds largely of this material ; 

 hence the bird is known in many locahties only by the 

 name of hair bird. The nests of these birds are usually 

 exquisitely fashioned, the materials being so deftly and 

 perfectly intertwined that the inside of the nest when 

 detached from the coarse surroundings will stand rough 

 handling without injury; one can closely judge the 

 color of the cattle or horses kept on the farm premises 

 by the lining of these miniature nests. 



Those finches and thrushes which nest in trees usually 

 select prongs or forks of branches wherein to place the 

 nest, commencing at the bottom of the structure with 

 coarse material and refining as they proceed ; but the 

 orioles, vireos, and a few of the warblers fasten the 

 upper edges of the nest to the horizontal fork of a 

 branch or twig, so that when finished the structure is 

 suspended from, instead of resting on, a support. 

 Although these latter are all pensile nests, the orioles 

 are the only ones that are swinging. This class of birds 

 are the finest architects, and exercise great ingenuity, 

 often to such a degree as to place them high in the class 

 of intelligent creatures. 



A friend tells me that a pair of orioles built in an 

 elm on his lawn, but that just after or before the eggs 

 were deposited one of the branches supporting the nest 

 AYas by some mishap spht off. To remedy this accident 

 the birds found a piece of strong twine and securely 

 fastened one side of the structure to another limb, and 

 then raised a brood of birds in their repaired house. 



