170 IN BIRD LAND. 
But before describing the inmates of the nursery 
it would be well to give some attention to the nursery 
itself, its site and structure. By going to the books 
I might tell you of many quaint nests, of the nests of 
the tailor-bird, the water-ouzel, the parula warbler, 
the burrowing owl, and many others ; but — begging 
pardon for my conceit—I prefer not to get my 
material second-hand. One would rather describe 
one’s own observations, even though one may not be 
able to present so rare a list of curios. ‘The nest of 
the common wood-thrush, right here in my own 
neighborhood, is of far more personal interest than 
the remarkable nest of the fairy martin of Australia, 
which I have small hope of ever seeing. 
Having mentioned the nest of the wood-thrush, 
I might as well begin with it. It is not a remarkable 
structure from an architectural point of view. It might 
be called a semi-adobe dwelling, thatched with vari- 
ous kinds of grasses and leaves, and lined with vege- 
table fibres. It is much like the nest of the robin, 
only Madam Thrush does not go quite so extensively 
into the plastering business. It has been interesting 
to study the ingenuity of these sylvan architects in 
choosing sites for their nests. ‘They seem to know 
just where anest may be built with the least labor in 
order to make it sit firmly in its place. In the woods 
that I most frequently haunt there is a sort of bushy 
sapling whose branches, at a certain point on the 
main stem, often grow out almost horizontally for a 
few inches, and then form an elbow by shooting up 
almost vertically, thus making an arbor, as it were, 
