THE iu"vSii-'i'ri 



28: 



For its successful rearing tiicy are read)' in fdrswear the delights nf foreign 

 travel, and to its embellishment they dc\ote every surplus energy, even after 

 the children have come. 



If there were time it would be interesting to trace the genesis of this 

 architectural ])assion. Suflice it to say that the Bush-Tit comes of a race of 

 builders. They call him Tit, a name shared in common with all the C'liicka- 

 dees; and Chickadee he is in structure and behavior, in his .absolute indiffer- 

 ence to jjosition or balance, iu his dainiiiKs^ .niil spii^litliiicss. \'i iw riiick.-i- 

 dees, altho they 

 have lost the art 

 of building, arc 

 specialists in nest- 

 lining. (A nest 

 lined with rabliit- 

 fur means as 

 much to a Chicka- 

 dee as does a seal- 

 skin jacket tn 

 you, my lady ! ) 

 Hence the Chick- 

 adee strain is not 

 lost upon our sub- 

 ject. The Tit, 

 further, shows his 

 affim'ty with the 

 Kinglets in a 

 habit of restlessly 

 flirting the wings : 

 and the Kinglets, 

 as we know, are 

 master builders. 

 Rut it is to the 

 Wrens that the 

 Bush - Tit owes 

 most of all. and 

 especially to the 

 Tulc \\'rcn, for 

 he has taken the 

 general concep- 

 tion of a com- 

 pletely enclosed Take, w raccna. Pho,o by D„tc. 



nest and worked nest or the bushtit in situ. 



