WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



expert seamstress, and unite dryness, safety, and 

 warmth. They are mostly pendulous from the 

 ends of branches, and form thus a security from 

 snakes and other robbers, which could easily reach 

 them if placed on a more solid foundation; they 

 also hold eggs and young safely in storms that 

 wreck or overthrow most other bird-houses. They 

 are formed of the different grasses, dry roots, lich- 

 ens, long and slender mosses, and other advan- 

 tageous materials often supplied by man's art. 

 Among different species the structures vary in 

 shape from resembling a compact ball to nearly 

 every bottle-shaped gradation of form, until they 

 exceed three or four feet in length. Many species 

 being gregarious, they breed numerously in the 

 same vicinity or on the same tree, resembling in 

 this and other respects the weaver-birds, to which 

 they are partly allied. But for us our Baltimore's 

 nest possesses the most attractions; and as I shall 

 have much to say concerning this fine example of 

 a bird's architecture, I cannot begin better than by 

 quoting Nuttall's description of it. It would be im- 

 possible for me to say anything different and as 

 well: 



" It is begun by firmly fastening natural strings 

 of the flax of the silk-weed, or swamp hollyhock, 



253 



