224 SHARP EYES 



nest represented a raid on the stores of another bird 

 noted for his partiality to the snake-skin. Once, when 

 a boy, while investigating a woodpecker's den in a wil- 

 low-tree, I pulled from the bottom a handful of snake- 

 skins. Knowing the habits of snakes in the casting of 

 their sloughs, and knowing, too, that the " racer," or 

 black-snake, was a good climber, I concluded that I had 

 intruded upon the private dressing-room of the snake, 

 and not knowing how soon he might return to change 

 his clothes, I quickly left the premises. A few years 

 later the mystery was explained in my ornithology. I 

 had found a deserted nest of the great crested fly-catch- 

 er. This bird is the snake specialist, and its nest in the 

 deserted woodpecker's hole is seldom free from a gener- 

 ous lining of snake- skins of various kinds and sizes. 



Here are a few of the eccentric specialties of other 

 flest-builders : 



Wren Feathers. 



Chipping-sparrow Horse-hair and roots. 



Solitary vireo Coon-hair, deer-hair. 



Snow-bunting Fox-hair. 



Worm-eating warbler. . .Hickory and chestnut catkins. 



Ovenbird Dried spore-stems of mosses. 



Purple finch Hog-bristles and horse-hair. 



Kentucky warbler Pith of weeds. 



Prairie warbler Cast-off caterpillar-skins. 



Yellow warbler. ........ Feathery seeds. 



Blue-gray gnat-catcher . . Bud-scales, dried blossoms, and fern-down. 



Humming-bird Fern-wool, red-oak leaf-down. 



Baltimore oriole Milk-weed bark, horse-hair, and long moss. 



Yellow-billed cuckoo. . ..Small sticks. 



Robin Grass and mud. 



Golden-crested wren. . . .Spanish-moss. 



Chimney swift Home-made glue (saliva) and sticks. 



It will be seen that there is a wide variety of choice 



