THE BULFINCH. 63 



have in the present chapter to compare to basket- 

 makers, do not always manifest much dexterity, and, 

 in some cases, make their nests very loosely, and 

 in an ill-finished manner. The materials employed 

 by the ingenuity of man in making baskets are very 

 various ; for though the greater number are made 

 of osiers and other flexible twigs, some are con- 

 structed of strips of wood, some of leaves, and oth- 

 ers of rushes or reeds. Even the least refined of 

 savage nations are often dexterous in such manu- 

 factures. Vaillant saw some baskets among the 

 Gonaqua Hottentots of Southern Africa, worked 

 with reeds in so delicate a manner, and of so close 

 a texture, that they were used for carrying water, 

 milk, and other liquids. 



Birds, however, make use of many more kinds of 

 materials in forming their nest-baskets than is done, 

 so far as we know, in our manufactures ; while they 

 seldom, if ever, employ osiers as we do. Our most 

 conspicuous and best-known basket-making birds, 

 indeed, so far from always selecting flexible mate- 

 rials, which we should deem indispensable, prefer 

 brittle dead sticks at least for the outworks ; which 

 are, in fact, constructed at the commencement of 

 the nest, much on the model of the platform-build- 

 ers. The bulfinch lays a foundation of birch twigs, 

 placed crosswise in the forks of the branches, pay- 

 ing more attention to the security of the fabric than 

 to its neatness. But when she gets into a spruce 

 pine, finding that the flat branch itself is an excellent 

 foundation, she uses a much smaller number of 

 sticks. When she has reared a groundwork to 

 her mind, she proceeds to collect a quantity of flex- 

 ible fibrous roots, which she intertwines into a sort 

 of basket-work, rather loose, and only sufficient to 

 hold the eggs and young from rolling down. The 

 inside is wholly lined with fine roots without any 

 hair or feathers. 



