THE SONG SPARROW. 87 
is the choice morsel of everything that 
preys,—cats, skunks, weasels, red squir- 
rels, hawks, crows, jays, shrikes, black 
snakes, and garter snakes. How would 
this motley company fare, were it not for 
the annual crop of Song Sparrows? And 
the wonder of it is that the brave heart 
holds out, and sings its song of trust and 
love with the wrecks of three nests behind 
it, and the harvest not yet past. 
The nest of this species is usually 
carefully constructed of weed-stalks, 
vegetable fibers, and grasses, with 
dead leaves and trash in endless va- 
riety. It is deeply cup-shaped, with 
a rim neatly turned, lined with fine 
grasses, grass-stems or horse-hair. 
Probably more than half are upon 
the ground, sunk flush with the sur- 
face or bedded in trash, commonly 
under the protection of root, stick, 
OL grass tussock. Halt as many Taken near Licking Reservoir. Photo by the Author. 
more occupy grass tussocks at some AN UNUSUAL NESTING SITE. 
distance from the gr sund: while the A NEST CONTAINING FOUR EGGS OCCUPIES THE UPPER- 
MOST NICHE IN THE STUMP. 
remainder are placed in briar tan- 
gles, fence-corners, declining limbs of trees, forks of trees, etc. On two occa- 
sions I have found nests occupying little caves in the punk of decayed stumps. 
Others appear in tussocks of saw grass, entirely surrounded by water. Cat- 
tails are a favorite place. One female in a ground nest regularly required 
about three seconds in which to extricate herself from the tangle of her own 
ingenuity. Another chose a retreat underneath a chance limb which a wind 
had blown down upon a perfectly smooth woodland lawn. ‘The nest shown 
in the illustration on the preceding page was found placed in the center of a 
spreading fern in a green-house on the Ohio State University grounds, and 
the young were successfully raised. In short, there is no place out of doors, 
or nearly so, where a man with his feet planted on the soil may not expect 
to find a Song Sparrow's nest. 
