168 THE NESTS OF DIFFERENT BIRDS. 



by any of the extremes of our climate. The wood 

 pigeon and the jay, though they erect their fabrics 

 on the tall underwood in the open air, will construct 

 them so slightly, and with such a scanty provision 

 of materials, that they seem scarcely adequate to 

 support their broods, and even their eggs may 

 almost be seen through the loosely-connected mate- 

 rials : but the goldfinch, that inimitable spinner, 

 the Arachne of the grove, forms its cradle of fine 

 mosses and lichens, collected from the apple or the 

 pear-tree, compact as a felt, lining it with the down 

 of thistles besides, till it is as warm as any texture 

 of the kind can be, and it becomes a model for 

 beautiful construction. The golden-crested wren, 

 a minute creature, perfectly unmindful of any se- 

 verity in our winter, and which hatches its young 

 in June, the warmer portion of our year, yet builds 

 its most beautiful nest with the utmost attention to 

 warmth ; and, interweaving small branches of moss 

 with the web of the spider, forms a closely-com- 

 pacted texture nearly an inch in thickness, lining it 

 with such a profusion of feathers, that, sinking 

 deep into this downy accumulation, it seems almost 

 lost itself when sitting, and the young, when 

 hatched, appear stifled with the warmth of their 

 bedding and the heat of their apartment ; while the 

 whitethroat, the blackcap, and others, which will 

 hatch their young nearly at the same period, or in 

 July, will require nothing of the kind. A few 

 loose bents and goose-grass, rudely entwined, with 

 perhaps the luxury of some scattered hairs, are 



