BIRDS'-NSTS. 141 



significant chirp, as much as to say, " It is 

 time we were out of this," began to climb up 

 toward the proper entrance. Placing him- 

 self in the hole, he looked around without 

 manifesting any surprise at the grand scene 

 that lay spread out before him. He was 

 taking his bearings and determining how far 

 he could trust the power of his untried wings 

 to take him out of harm's way. After a 

 moment's pause, with a loud chirrup, he 

 launched out, and made tolerable headway. 

 The others rapidly followed. Each one, as 

 it started upward, from a sudden impulse, 

 contemptuously saluted the abandoned nest 

 with its excrement. 



Though generally regular in their habits 

 and instincts, yet the birds sometimes seem 

 as whimsical and capricious as superior be- 

 ings. One is not safe, for instance, in mak- 

 ing any absolute assertion as to their place 

 or mode of building. Ground builders often 

 get up into a bush, and tree builders some- 

 times get upon the ground or into a tussock 

 of grass. The song - sparrow, which is a 

 ground builder, has been known to build in 

 the knot-hole of a fence rail, and a chimney 

 swallow once got tired of soot and smoke, 

 and fastened its nest on a rafter in a hay 



