The Birds’ Calendar 
of silkweed, tow, etc., with a lining. of horse- 
hair, grass, and similar material. 
But the most ethereal affair of all, of gauzy 
texture comporting with its dainty occupant, is 
the humming -bird’s home. Its framework is 
soft down, such as grows on the stems of cer- 
tain ferns, covered with lichens glued on with 
the saliva of the bird, and the whole lined with 
superlatively soft and downy substances like the 
pappus of flying seeds. This elegant abode is 
only three-quarters of an inch in its inner di- 
ameter, yet amply large for the two tiny eggs 
less than half an inch in length—‘ love ina 
cottage,’’ indeed—and_ the casket with its pair 
of germinant jewels and its airy fairy master 
and mistress presents one of the rarest pictures 
in nature. 
In contrast with such a delicate dream how 
huge and ungainly is the dwelling of the bald 
eagle, a bulky heap sometimes five feet in diam- 
eter, and two or three feet thick, made of large 
sticks often an inch thick, branches of seaweed, 
and turf. But Nature is as masterly in a gigan- 
tic stroke as in her gentlest touch, and shows 
the same superb consistency in grouping the 
majestic bird of prey with its inhospitable eyrie 
on the rugged, lonely mountain-top, as when 
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