NEST-HUNTING. 95 
thrasher-fashion in Ohio (in which locality the 
birds display the best taste I will not say) ; for 
during the spring of 1890 I found but two nests 
on the ground, and was surprised to find even them, 
while at least fifteen were discovered in other places. 
Most of them were on low thorn-bushes, but not all. 
One was built in a brush-heap, one on a pile of 
“ cord-wood,” another on a small stump screened 
by some bushes, and two ona rail fence. Of the 
last two, one was partly supported by poison-ivy 
vines and partly by a rail; the other was built 
entirely on a rail in a projecting corner of the 
fence. 
The thrasher, as has been said, builds an artless 
platform of sticks that in some cases barely holds 
together long enough to answer the purpose for 
which it was intended. In this respect its habits 
differ from those of the wood-thrush, a bird that 
is very abundant and musical in my neighborhood. 
I have found many of the wood-thrush’s nests, 
which are built in the crotches of small saplings in 
the thickest part of the woods, and are made almost 
as substantial as the adobe dwellings of the robin. 
The thrush does not use as much mortar as his red- 
breasted relative ; otherwise there is a close resem- 
blance between the nests of the two birds. 
It was amusing to find pieces of newspaper 
bedizening the houses of the wood-thrushes so 
frequently, though it cannot be said that they 
showed the highest literary taste in their selec- 
tions ; for one or two of the fragments contained 
