How to Attract the Birds 



lichens with mud, and lining it with hair, saves it from 

 similar destruction by placing it under bridges, cliffs 

 and the eaves of piazzas. Like a miniature Dutch 

 oven is the nest of the golden-crowned thrush, whose 

 domed nursery only the sharpest eyes can detect 

 among the leaves on the ground in the woods. 



Which are the best decorators among birds ? 

 While many show true strivings after the beautiful, 

 one hesitates between the parula warbler and the 

 humming-bird before awarding the palm, for the 

 former will consent to live only where she can 

 gather the graceful gray moss to festoon her nest, 

 while the latter builds the daintiest, downiest, 

 tiniest nest imaginable, then stuccos it with bits of 

 lichen for the purpose of concealing this master- 

 piece of architecture, no doubt ; but surely this 

 aesthetic little creature is also influenced by a sense 

 of beauty. 



Which birds then are hum-bugs ? If the marsh- 

 wren, which goes o the pains of building a number 

 of nests among the tall grasses in the same vicinity 

 for the purpose of misleading intruders, does not 

 belong in this category, the dusky crested flycatcher 

 certainly does. This "wild Irishman among birds" 

 scours the country for cast snake skins to place in 

 his nest ; but when this bugaboo cannot be found 

 he has had to content himself more than once with 

 the skin of an onion! At a catbird's imitation of 

 pussy's mew, even the house-dog pricks up his ears. 

 The yellow-breasted chat will lead you a sorry chase, 

 throwing his unmusical, ventriloquous voice now 

 into the cat-brier tangle across the stream, now 

 among the undergrowth far beyond. 



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