52 Birqtou>i i 5tttd| qf ihn //■' l.i nil. 



roughly hi the shape of a nest just begun, The first nests of the j ear 

 are usually built verj slowly, three to six days being consumed in 

 tlu> work, which Is done wholly by the female, though the male 

 often brings pieces of nest material, which are, however, never 

 accepted by his mate. This performance of the male always 

 impresses one as being a 'bluff.' He dances constant attendance 

 on the female as she works, cheering her continually with vigorous 

 song, at us best at this time, later in the season a nest, if it be 

 what one maj term 'an emergency nest,' ma\ be completed in a 

 single day, anil an egg laid in it on the second day. 



After a nest is finished, it' it be not an 'emergency nest,' the 

 builders almost invariably leave the neighborhood and are not 

 seen again for s fev the end of which absence they reappear, 



and egg laying begins, It' the birds be undisturbed, and the old 

 nest left s it may be used to rear a second brood, without 

 its being renovated in the least; but this use of an old nest is 

 not usual. Mine often an old nest, it' used for a second time, is 

 partly covered by a new one, to avoid, it may l>e. insects, or the 

 soiled condition of the old one. In oul\ one instance has the w riter 



seen the same nest used for three successive broods. On several 



-dons a new nest has been huilt over an old one. in which there 



were abandoned eggs: whether or not the builders of the first ami 



second nests were the same birds, the writer is unable to saj V ig 



orous nest building begins early in March, unless the weather is too 



severe The earliest date on whieh a completed nest, with ati egg 

 in it. has been noted was March 12, though there were many nearly 

 Completed nests in the same neighborhood en the same date, or 

 earlier l\\ the last of March, nesting' is in full swing all over the 

 city, hut the tlood tide of niditieation is in April and May .taking 

 the egg laying as an index), there being little difference between 

 these two mouths, as the following table will show, the data being 

 from the nests about the writer's home premises 





